A SAD CASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2758, 23 January 1907, Page 12

A SAD CASE.

DEATH FROM APPENDICITIS. An inquest was held on th<^ 10th inst. at tli© Hospital by Mr C. 0. Graham (coroner) and a jury of six, of whom Mr T. Sfurr was chosen foreman, concerning the death of William Cameron Brownie, a young man who died in the institution early on Wednesday morning. Sergeant King appeared for the police, and Mr A. C. Hanlon watched the proceedings on behalf of Mr J. Brownie (senior), the father of deceased. Charlee Young, labourer, at the NortliEast Valley, said that deceased was a cousin of his, and he identified the body. Wirneee also knew the father of deceased, John Brownie. He saw the two together on the night of the 2nd inst. on the footpath at the Upper North-East Valley. A little brother of deceased's, Charles Brownie, Tva6 also there. The boy was crying and the father was trying to pacify him. Witness went up to Mr Brownie and told him the boy Charles and a little brother of witness's. who wae also present, were- in his charge, and that they were all right. Deceased had not at that time come on the scene, but appeared 6oon afterwards. When deceased came up the father said he was going to take the boy Charles to the police, as ho was neglected. The Coroner : Mr Brownie is, 1. understand, separated from his wife, who has charge of the boy. Mr Hanlon : Mr Brownio came up and found the ohild erving and said he would takf it to the police. Witness, continuing, said the time when this occurred would be about half-past nine. The boy did not want to go with his father, but wanted to go home to his mother. He started calling out for his brother (deceased), who came forward to take him by the hand. The father told deceased to let go, but he did not do so, and Brownie (senior) struck deceased on the shoulder with his fist. Deceased then struck back, and. several blows passed between the two. The fight lasted j for about two minutea. Witness told de- I ceased he had better get out of it, as people

, -were coming down the footpath, and ha ! ran awsiy towards home. Brownie (senior) •went into the middle of tihe road, picked up some metal, and ran after deceased. Witness saw no more of the affair. To Sergeant King: Brownio struck deI ceased about the body, but witness could . not say what part it was he struck. Could not say how many blows he etruok. In conversation with deceased three quarters. of an hour after the row, witness asked if CMr Brownie struck him in the face, and he replied no. He said the only blow ho felt was the first one on his eihoulder. There •was nothing said about dumbbells. Mr Mr Hanlon : Deceased wae in the habit of using dumbbells,- and told witness they were about 651bs in weight each. Witness corrected himself and said it was a 'bar-bell, and it weighed 65 lbs. Deceased told him he had had an accident with it on the Sunday, one of the balls coming off. This did not strike him, but the other ball, being without balance, came down and gave j him a wrench. Deceased was a strong, active youn.g man, and was more than a match for his father. He had the bettor iof the row with his father. Noticed afterwards that the father had hie face marked. Would not swear deceased received more than the one blow on the shoulder. To Serjeant King: Both father and son were quite sober. Dr Fnleoner, senior house surgeon at the Hospital, deposed that deceased was admitted to the Hospital on the evening of the 7th January, between 6.30 and 7 o'clock. He was complaining of great pain in theabdomen. He was examined by witness, and was found to be suffc/ing from general peritonitis, the result of gangrenous appendicitis. Witness telephoned for Dr Stanley Batchelor, who at onre came and operated on deceased. The abdomen was found to contain several pint* cf pus, and the appendix was in a state of gangrene. The oaso was practically hopeless from the first, and deceased died at ♦ a.m. on the 9th inst., the cause of death being gangrenous appendicitis. On admission deceased stated that the pain in the abdomen had come on on Thursday, January 3, about 2 or 3 p.m., and continued up to the time he wm admitted to the Hospital. He also 6tated that he was of the opinion the pain was caused either by a blow he had received on the left side- of the chest and lower ribs between 9 and 10 p.m. the evening before the 3rd, or that the pain was caused by a wrench he had received while exercising with a barbell, which had slipped and given him a wrench. He thought the wrench from the barbell was the more likely to have caused the trouble. He said it waa at 7 p.m. — two hours before the row ho had — he received the wrench from the barbell. Witness would be disinclined- to think either the blow or the strain was the actual • cause- of what deceased was suffering from. He would not be prepared to 6ay either was the actual or exact cause of the appendicitis seeing how often it occurred without any apparent originating cause. In any case, the strain would be the more likely cause of the trou&le. Four cases of appendicitis had come into the Hospital in three days, one beintf that of young Brownie, and there was no history in connection with any of them. The Coroner said he did not think it was necessary to call a further witness mentioned by Sergeant King. The cause of death was no doubt acute appendicitis, and the only question for the jury to consider was how it originated, and whether it was caused by the blow received in the row with deceased's father or by the wrench deceased had got while exercising with tho barbell, or arose from some extraneous cause. He did not think there was evidence sufficiently reliable to show that the blow caused the trouble, and he thought the only conclusion the jury could oome to was that the cause of death was appendicitis, but that the evidence was not suffioient to show what the exact cause of theappendicitis was. The jury returned a verdict that deceased died of acute appendicitis, but there was not sufficient evidence to show, the origin or cause of the same.