STARTLING DISCOVERY IN A DEADHOUSE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3064, 22 April 1881, Page 4

STARTLING DISCOVERY IN A DEADHOUSE.

A long discussion took place at the meeting of the Worcester Town Council, with regard to a case in which a man had been taken for dead, and was in a coffin at the deadhouae. Charles Davies, aged twenty-nine, a carriage-trimmer at Worcester, attempted to commit suicide by cutting bis throat, be being found in a pool of blood. Two local medical men, who were brought to see the man, gave it as their opinion that he was dead. The coroner's officer, hearing of the matter, >oon arrived, and, taking it for granted that the man was dead, sent two of his assistants off for a coffin and a barrow. The body was placed in a coffin and was wheeled to the mortuary in the Worcester churchyard, and would have remained there to await the coroner's inquest, but the coroner's officer suddenly observed the supposed corpse move his eyelids. This startled the officer. After waiting a few seconds the man heaved a deep sigh and moved one leg. Another doctor was then brought, and he pronounced the man to be alive, and not dead. The wound in the man's throat was dressed, and afterwards .he was able to communicate with the house surgeon. Nearly three hours elapsed from the time the poor fellow was discovered witb his throat cut and his removal to the infirmary. The occurrence has caused a great sensation in Worcerter.