INQUEST.

Press, Volume XXXII, Issue 4409, 17 September 1879, Page 3

INQUEST.

An inquest was held yesterday morning at the Morgue attached to the Police Depot, on the body of a male infant, found in the river Ayod, on Sunday last. A jury wm sworn in and Mr Wm. Thomson chosen foreman. The following evidence was taken:—Courtney NedwOl, medical practitioner, deposed that he made a post mortem examination of the child. It was under sevsn months old. There was a cut on the back through the slcin, and another across the right shin, and one through the umbilical cord. The cuts might have been caused by the stones that were in the bag in which the child was found. The lungs had not been inflated, and the witness was of opinion that t&e child had never breathed. By the Police—The child could not hare been born more than a day or two. James Bay deposed that he wae walking along by the river Avon on Sundaymorning.. last, in company with some other boys, when he caw a sugar bag [produced J in the river. It wee sunk in about two feet of water close to the bank on the north side a little past the Cemetery. Toak the bag out of the river, and found a quantity of stones and the body of a new born child. A handkerchief aad a piece o£ brown paper rolled out of the bag. There was a red mark on the handkerchief. The handkerchief produced is the same. It had the name of Arthur Salvage upon it. Put the bag over the body and went for a constable. Accompanied Constable Flanagan back to the place, who took charge of the body. It was about quarter past ten o'clock &J22.

Constable Flanagan deposed that on Sunday morning, the 14th inst., he was on duty in Colombo street north. The last witness, in company with two other 'boys, came to him between ten sod eleven o'clock a.m., and reported that they had found the body of a new born child in the river. Witness went with them to the place, and they pointed oat the spot where they had taken the body oat of the river. It was lying on the north bank, near the Cemetery. The place where they had taken the body oat wu five or six feet from the bank. Witness conveyed the body to the police depot, together with the handkerchief, bag, and stones found with it. The body in the morgue m the same. This was the whole of the evidence, and Inspector Htckson requested that the inquest

riight be adjourned for a week for further inquiries to be made. . [The Coroner said the point for the consideration of the jury was whether the child was' born dead or alive, and it the latter how it came by its death. If _ they ■fere of opinion from tbe medie»l evidence that the child had been born dead then there was an end of the matter. Anything outside those questions was foreign to the enquiry. The foreman said that the jury could not agree as to whether the child was born alive or dead. A juryman said that if Dr. Nedwill could not make up his mind as to whether the child was stillborn or not, he did not see how, the jury could, and from the medical evidence the doctor was not fatisfied upon the point. As another juryman also had doubts upon the point, the enquiry was adjourned un the 23rd met., at 10 a.m.