DEATH OF EDMUND BENNETT

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1928, Page 9

DEATH OF EDMUND BENNETT

CARBOLIC ACID BOTTLE FOUND. A post-mortem on the body of Edmund Bennett, of Barrett Hoad, was made yesterday, and an inquest will be held to-day when the police have received particulars of his military record from the Base Records Office. Bennett died in the New Plymouth hospital at 1.50 a.m. on Sunday, having been hurriedly taken there from his home on the instructions of Dr. D. E. Brown. Some time before his death Bennett purchased a bottle of carbolic acid from a chemist in New Plymouth and signed for it. It was usually kept on the kitchen mantelpiece. - When the doctorwas first called to the house at 9 o’clock on Saturday night Bennett, who was in bed, said he had been advised by a friend to take a drop or two of carbolic acid for his trouble. The doctor strongly advised him against doing this and urged him to persevere with the slower but surer medical treatment. On finding her husband in convulsions in his room about 11.45 p.m., Mrs. Bennett again summoned Dr. Brown. He found a strong smell of carbolic around the bed, and a two-ounce bottle of the poison nearby contained only a very small quantity of the fluid. Following urgent treatment Bennett was removed to the hospital, but died a few minutes after being admitted.