INQUEST.

Press, Volume XIII, Issue 1717, 25 August 1868, Page 2

INQUEST.

An inquiry into the circumstances connected with the death of Annie Harding alias Little, who -was found lying dead in Worcester street east on Saturday morning, was held yesterday afternoon at Milla'e hotel by Dr. Coward, coroner, and a jury, of whom Mr Henry Leake was foreman. After the jury bad viewed the body, the following evidence was taken :— . Dr H. H. Prins stated—l hare made a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased. With the exception of a slight bruise on the forehead there were no external marks of violence visible. Upon removing the skull I found a large quantity of bloody effusion at the base of the brain. The brain itself was highly congested. There, was a very small clot of blood in the right ventricle. In the chest the right lung was; hepatieed and adhered to the walls of the chest; the left lung was[healthy ; the liver and. kidneys were oongested, and there were four or six ounces of grumbusUquid in'the stomach, which smelt .very stronglyof spirits. I attribute death to -apoplexy. "TBe'eTlcfence of <Sfsease in the lung w<lß of old standing. The bruise on the forehead was apparently the reeult of a slight fall. ■ John Conrad Vogel, milkman, statod . About twenty minutes to seven o'clock on Saturday morning, whije I was going to my work, I found in Woroeeter street east, the body of the deceased on the footpath lying on its face, with its feet towards the Town Belt east. The deceaeed was quite dead and cold. I sent a boy to inform the police. I did not examine the ground about where the body was, lying, j but I observed no appearanoe of a struggle having taken place. I did not know, the woman. The bottle produced (about one-third full of brandy) was lying close to the left hand of the deceased. Police-Sergeant McKnight deposed to finding the body of the deceased on the footpath of Worcester street east about fifty yards from her residence. She had- no skirt nor bonnet on, but was otherwise fully clothed. The face was downwards in the soft clay. There was a little clotted blood at tho nose, and froth was issuing from the Mouth j the left arm was underneath the body and the right stretched across the footpath. Upon witness moving the body a liquid like brandy or sherry issued from the mouth. Witness examined the footpath, but. saw no marks of a struggle. As the footpath has been recently made if any struggle had taken place marks would have been ieft. Witness went to deceased's residence and found the door on the latch. Thero was a wet skirt on the floor of the bed room and another in the sitting rojm.. Cross-examined—Tho deceased's name was Harding, but she went by the alias at Little. She was a woman of the class called " unfortunate," and was addicted to drink. The bottle was corked. There was no one living in the house with her. From the way in which the body was lying, deceased appeared to have left her house and gone in the direction of the centre of the town. Mr Vogel was by the body when witness saw it. The jury at once returned a verdict to the effect that-the deccajed died "By the visitation of God from apoplexy."