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Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1925, 22 December 1874, Page 3

.DEATH BF BtJIiNING—INQUEST. An inquest held yesterday at the Saracen's Head Hotel, ' Pollen-street, * on the body of Henry John Wilson, a child of two years of age, who died yesterday morning from having been: burned. Mr J. H. Jefferson was. chosen foreman of the jury. The jury -having, viewed the., body, the following evidence waß taken : —Dr Perston deposed : ,I am a medical practitioner residing at Shortland.' I was called to Bee the deceased, Henry John Wilson, about eight o'clock yesterday morning. I found tiim suffering from an extensive burn of the first degree, which extended over the whole of the front of the trunk of the body, also implicating the arms, neck, and lower part of the face. The blisters over the chest and arms, face and neck had been torn by the writhings cf the child. [ enveloped the burned parts with appropriate dressings, : and gave an anodyne ■ mixture to procure sleep. I was again sent for at 2 a.m. today, and found the child in violent Convulsions. I attribute the death to the nervous irritability induced by tho very extensive burn.—Elizabeth Wilson deposed: I reside at the Saracen's Head Hotel, which is kept.by the .father of deceased. Deceased was my bother.. He •vanted a week of' being two fears'of age; I ■HMMb HnipH

soou after — about a . quarter of an hour after—a restless sleep. 'Ho kept waiting about every 20 minutes, and continued that, way till he went into convulsions, when we sent for the doctor, Pliat would be about 2 o'clock this morning. The convulsions continued till 10 minutes to 4, when, the child died. We kept linen clothes and sweet oil to the child during the' day, that being the treatment ordered by the doctor _ The child was very healthy up to tho time of the accident.' The child could hot have got to the atove, as it was an American one, with the doors shut, . I took the malches away with me. He might : hare picked up a loose match and put it to the stove; which was hot. • I did not use kerosene to light the fire,-nor was there any about the kitchen. _ There/was nobody about when I was lighting the lire.. My little brother came down as I was answering, the door.—By Mr Bullen: When I left the kitchen' the child .was about two.yards from the' stove. It had eaten about half the bread and- jam, and I found some on (lie floor afterwards. from the time I left till I heard him scream was just'.while f walked from the kitchen to tho fronttwenty or. thirtyyards.; .My brother, whom I sent at first is seven years old. I sent him when I heard the child cry, and tlieii when he gave a severe scream I .ran myself, when I found the child'ioming to tlio kitchen door, blazing. I looked on tho floor, arid found a match bnrned away except a very little bit. I found it very near the'stove. T put' all the match in the 6re wh<m I lighted it, The floor had not been'swept; that morning.' The. seams in the flooring in the kitchen are wide apart. Two .or three matches might rest between.the boards without- being observed, on tho afters and elsewhere. There was nobody in the kitchen between the lime I left and my brother going..--Mr Bullen said,the,only, other witness was the little boy'referred' Jo in the evidence of the last witness, who rushed in »nd found, two matehes intact, and one half burnt. -Pr ; Pers'tbn, in : (inswer to the Coronet', said'thoro was no important organ affected. It was the great irritation from, the injury'of'tho;. s burns which caused the deafch.—Tlie jury" decided to take, the evidetico of Thomas. Wilson, who deposed : I am brother -to the boy who lias been burnt, and son of John Wilson, who resides in this house (tho Saracen's Head ifo'el).' I heard my sister Elizabeth and littles', brother, younger thau he who was burnt, screaming, and that woke ..me. I heard them screaming " Harry is; on fire," and jumped up out of bed. I carae down stairs. My mother then had the little boy in her arms. I found that' lie had been burnt.' round tho Ifitcheu to see how he set .fire to himself. I found a couple of matches on the floor, as if ihey had-dropped out'of a box.' They were wax vestas. There was the remains of one matc'i, which had been burnt, on the floor, but of the two whic'u I found

neither; had been . lighted. ' I noticed nothing else. 1 Tli'p. stove was all safe,..so far as I could see, but"! was so' excited' I could hardly notice much.—By. the jury' : of 1 the embers could fall out ot' the stove tO'the floor'. The inatbh'es Wliieh I picked ,up : were directly, in front of' the stove.—The : little boy then referred.to previously was brought 'into Court.' '.His father said lie was only between six and' seven years old. The jury decided that his evidence was not required.— s 'ev,eral of the jurymen, with the permission ofthe Coroner, went: to the: kitchen, to examine it and the stove. Upon their return the jury consulted, and returned- a verdict to tho effect that the death was acci-. dental. :