TWO SUICIDES.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 76, 28 August 1874, Page 3

TWO SUICIDES.

The Art/vs of the 6th reports : An inquest was held on Wednesday at the Alfred Hospital, by Dr Youl, on the body of James Fowler, aged about 56 years, a coachman. He left a widow and four children. The deceased was not a drunkard, but had been for the last three weeks in very low spirits, on account of being out of employment, and had several times said that if he had much trouble he would throw himself into the water. He was of a nervous and excitable temperament. On Monday he went to a new situation, as coachman to Mr Hopkins, at St Kilda. The same afternoon he was found to be locked in his room off the stable, and was said to be drunk, or to have taken poison. The door, which was locked inside, was broken open, and the deceased was found rolling on the floor in groat pain, but cold, and almost pulseless. Mr Dempster, surgeon, who was called, attended immediately. The deceased told him he had taken oxalic acid, and Mr Dempster treated him accordingly. After using the stomach pump, he sent him to the Alfred Hospital. On a ledge in the room was found a cup containing oxalic acid. The deceased had taken the poison some hours before he was discovered. He died in the hospital an hour and a half after admission. Mr Cooke, surgeon at that institution, stated that the cause of death was poisoning by oxalic acid. The jury found that the deceased died of poisoning by oxalic acid taken by himself with the intention of committing suicide, and that there was no evidence to show the state of his mind.

The same coroner held an inquest on Wednesday at West Melbourne, on the body oil Henry Horace Batchelor, aged thirty-two years, a coffee-stall keeper, who lived in Dudley street, West Melbourne, He had been ill for the last two years, having, it was supposed, heart disease, and had been unable to work for some considerable time. Thursday last he was confined to bed, and was very impatient about it. On Inst Monday night he was a little delirious. For the last two days he could not be induced to take food- nothing but water. On Tuesday he was very quiet, and at about half-past one was in his room, and his wife was iu the kitchen. Nhe went into his room to give him a drink, and found him propped up in bed, with his eyes staring and his face pale. His wife, thinking he was dying, ran for assistance, aud on returning found that he waa dead. She heard no explosion. A pistol

was found lying on the stomach of the deceased. Constable Eaton, who was sent for. on examining the body found a penetrating gun shot wound in the left chest, just, below the nipple. Blood had flowed from the wound, and saturated the deceased's shirt and the blankets. The shirt over the wound was blackened as though the shot had been fired at point blank. The pistol or revolver contained six chambers. Five were still loaded, and the other had been recently discharged. There were no other injuries The deceased's face bore a composed expression, and death appeared to have been instantaneous. About ten minutes heroic the deceased was found to be dead, a pastrycook named Benjamin Pike was talking to the deceased, who seemed quite sensible, but low spirited. Pike and two other men were in the kitchen with the wife just before she went into deceased's room, and they heard no explosion. On Sunday last the deceased told Pike he felt inclined to use the little " pop," and get rid of the pain he was suffering. The revolver belonged to the deceased, who always kept it loaded under his head when in bed, and always carried it with him when he went out. He had frequently said he would put au end to himself—that the agony he suffered was enough to make him do it. He left no family. His wife supported him. On Sunday last she found the pistol in his bed, and asked him what he was going to do with it, but he said nothing, The jury found that the deceased shot himself with a pistol, and that there was no evidence to show the state of his mind at the time.