SUDDEN DEATH AT SHORTLAND. -INQUEST.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2040, 10 May 1875, Page 3

SUDDEN DEATH AT SHORTLAND. -INQUEST.

On Salurday Mrs Lowndes, wife of Mr Lowndes, boatman, died suddenly at hor house in Pollen-street, Shortland, under tho circumstances which will bo found detailed in tho evidence which wo give below.., Mr Lowndes and his two Jbojs wcro absent at Ooroumndcl. At four o'clock an inquest was held at'tho Saracon's Head Hotel, beforo Dr Eilgour and a jury, of whom Mr U. Hudson was chosen foreman. Mr Mullen was present and elicited tho ovideneo, •

Ada Mary ; Lowiidca deposed : I am going on for cjovou years of ago. Deceased was my mother. My falhor, Thomas Lowndes, is an oysterman. lib has been absent from homo since Inst week, My mother has been ailing for somo lime, DrPerslonsaw hor Inst week, and, gave her somo modicino. fc'ho was out of her mind yostcrdny, but appeared belter this morning'. I was not at homo to-day when my mother died.' . .

' Mecca Wilson deposed: I Dm the wife of John Wilson. I hnvo known the deceasedfor about twolvo months, since I camo to this house. She refided close to it. She has been in tlio habit of taking' drink, but I novor.saw her out of the way with it. She has been complaining since I came hero, but more so tho la'#thfee months. She has been bedfast for the last three days. l She appeared to be delirious yesterday. I saw some portwine in a cup with her yesterday, but she said sho had not taken any. I asked her if sbewpuld have some tea, and she said it would not lie on her stomach. I saw her this morning; she was lying down, and said'she-was very ill. I think that was about half-past 8. In about an hour or moro after that tho little girl camo for me, and said her mother was very ill, and that she thought sho was dead. I went up, andfound that she was dead. She was quite warm. Tho little girl got some liquor from mo this morning to take jlOmO. ;:/;,.

Dr Fox deposed: I w#s called to-day, about ono o'clock, tof the residence of deceased, and found her quite dead. I havo this afternoon made a post-mortem examination. I found considerable pneumonia in the right lung/arid the liver was in&state of confirmed 'cirrhosis. -There was disease of the heart, consisting of dilatation of tho aorta, and hypertrophy of the left ventricle. I consider that this weakness of tho heart, added to the disturbance of tho from the dis- : oase of the' lungs, is quite sufficient to account for tho sudden death. 'There were no marks of violence on the body.. There was some beer on tho stomach, but scarcely;,any food. Intemperate habits, t wilh tho disease Ihavo described, would make it. even moro likely that sudden death should take place. There was a cyst in tho chest, Rbove tho base of the heart, but it had no connection with death.

Mr Bujlen said that ho had further evidence in attendance as to- what took place immediately preceding death, if the jury thought it necessary. Tho meoibcrsof the jury dii not think any further evidence was necessary to enable them to come to a conclusion as-to what was tho causo of death. •' ' The jury returned a verdict that doceased died, from disease of the ; .hcarV accelerated by intemperate habits,"