coroner's inquest at hillingdon

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stration against the president and the council of the college.Sir Benjamin Brodie had left, and the tall figure of the pre-sident, still further elevated by some artificial means, "tower-ing above the rest," was peculiar in the extreme. It wasrendered more so by the fact, that when the College of Phy-sicians was drank, every member of that learned body was onhis legs, but now, not a single person but Mr. Green ap-peared to be connected with the College of Surgeons. Hestood there as the incarnation of the college; and a strangerto our profession would have thought that he was notsurrounded by members of his own college-men who had ’,passed the same examination as himself, and who ought to ’,have the same privileges. The scene was still more peculiarfrom the general enthusiasm and good nature which had pre- ’,vailed, with one exception, when other toasts were drunk, andone could not help feeling the difference of an ctltiza naatea- andan injz.sta ;iOM;’ca. That, a scene of discord should he raisedover the convivial board after the " generous wine" had flowedfreely was to be regretted. But whose fault was it; the samething had occurred in 184T, when that excellent surgeonand amiable man, the late Samuel Cooper, was president ofthe college; but that kind-hearted surgeon, in returning thanks,elicited strong marks of approbation bv the very kindli-ness of his look, and by his promise to do all he could to makethings pleasant in the college. But Mr. Green rose, evidentlytuinoyed by the opp )sition the toast had met with, and then,to the amazement of every one, declared he knew not on whatgrounds the opposition rested. " BTearly forty years ago," hesaid, "he had occupied that chair," pointing to Mr. Ililton,"aiidproposed the toast of the Royal College of Surgeons of London;it was then received with unbounded applause. Now, when hewas president of that college, and rose to speak to the toast, howdifferent was the feeling that prevailed! To what cause was lieto refer the difference of tone that was now manifested? ’In-terested agitators,’ it was true, had charged the college councilwith being illiberal, but he declared that they had shown greatliberality, and in nothing more than in the attempts they weremaking to raise the medical men to the standard of gentlemenby education, a position which their profession entitled themto occupy." After proceeding to vindicate the Councii, amidsome interruption, he said, "I think it probable I havesome claim upon your good feeling on personal grounds a_lo7ze."The universal cheering that followed this, proved that it wasagainst the President of the College of Surgeons, and notagainst Green, that the ill-feeling had been expressed.Not a man in the room, we believe, refrained from giving ex-pression to his approbation-showing, that whilst they ‘‘ lovedthe offender" they could " detest the offence." He concluded,in eloquent terms, by some remarks on his connexion withthe united hospitals of St. Thomas and Guv, and with thegreat men who had been associated with them. Thespeech of Mr. Eyles was quite inaudible. The toasts which

followed, the chief of which were, the Medical Officers andLecturers at Guy’s, and Dr. Lever, were drunk with greatenthusiasm.We have mentioned that Mr. Hammond amused the com-

pany by a song partly Impromptu—one or two verses causedmuch merriment. in allusion to the rather angry appearanceof the learned President of the College of Physicians. llr.Hammond said or sung’’-

" It1 Paris, people, as we know,Are much disposed to riot,

Onr Paris, though excited now,Is generally quiet.

" Another person’s here to-night, _

Whom all have heard and seen,I think you’ll all agree with me,In ranie alone he’s Green."

’We do not pledge ourselves to the ipSiS3iila v,-ibct of lsr.Hammond.The meeting separated at a late hour.

CORONER’S INQUEST AT HILLINGDON.

EXTRAORDINARY CARE.-On Saturday last, at twelve o’clock,Mr. Waktey, M.P., attended at the Anchor, near the WestDrayton station, in the parish of Hillingdon, to hold all inqueston the body of William Vost, who had died under peculiar cir-cumstances on the previous Wednesday. It appears that the ui) for-tunate man had been married at eleven o’clock on the morning ojthat day, and on returning from the church he called on his son.in-law, named Hopping, respecting some furniture. A quarrelarose between them, and Vest and Hoppins were seen to fall tc

the ground struggling with each other. After getting on their legsthey resumed the fight, and continued until they were separatedby a man named Pope. The deceased then went to Pope’s cot-tage. where the wedding party iiad agreed to dine together. Theconflict between Vost and Hopping took place at half-past twelve.Vost did not complain, on walking to Pope’s cottage, that he hadbeen hurt, but he had marks of violence under both eyes. Attwenty minutes to three o’clock the party sat down to dinner, andin two or three minutes ufserwards the deceased, who the moment-before appeared quite well, suddenly arose from the table, andleft the room, and immediately afterwards Pope followed him, forthe purpose of seeing if anything was the matter, when he founddeceased leaning against the end of the cottage, as if in a failingposition. Pope immediately laid hold of him, and called forassistance, but before any help could arrive Vost had expired, andprobably in less than three minutes after he rose from the table.The body was taken into the house, where it was seen by ilZr.

Jennings, surgeon, of West Drayton, life being quite extinct.After the coroner and jury had viewed the body, the coronerstated that he was not aware until after his arrival there that Vosthad been engaged in a pugilistic contest within so brief a periodof his death, and it had not been stated to him in the note whichhe had received from the constable of the parish, that any suspi-cion existed that the man had died from blows or otherviolence; otherwise he should have directed a post-mortemexamination of the body to be made. Such a proceeding wasindispensable, as there were suspicions that the death had beencaused by violence. Hopping had been taken before a magistrateon a charge of manslaughter, on Thursday, and was then out onbail. Such circumstances rendered it absolutely necessary thatthe precise cause of death, if it were possible to discover it,should be correctly ascertained. The coroner then requestedMr. Jennings, who was present, to make the examinationof the body forthwith; and he then adjourned the inquesttill seven o’clock on Monday morning. The coroner apolo-gized for naming so early an hour, by stating that hehad an appointment at Brentford at half-past nine. Onthe re - assembling of the jury, the circumstances whichwe have just mentioned were proved in evidence, and inaddition, lIr. Jennings stated that he had, in compliancewith the directicn of the court, made a post-mortem exami-nation, and had ascertained that all the organs in the chestand abdomen were in a perfectly natural state, and that nodisease existed either in the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, &c., butthat on examining the head he found the brain excessively con-gested, and that the smallest vessels were full of red blood. Hehad never before seen so severe a case of congestion, and attri-buted the death of the man to apoplexy. In noticing the evidenceto the jury, ’:llr. ’BYak!ey stat"d that it was a remarkably interest-ing case, and one that offered several puinis of peculiarity, andhe a<-ked the surgeon if he had examined the mouth and throat ofthe deceased man, at the same time suggesting that it was not

improbable he had been choked. The coroner asked liv. Jen-nings if he had liis instruments at hand, and whether itwould be quite convenient for him to complete the examina-tion by ascertaining the condition of the back of the mouthand throat? He thought, that although the body was somedistance from the house, and that some time would be occupiedin the additional investigation, yet as the son-in-law was suf-

fering from a charge of manslaughter, the inquiry should bemade. Mr. Jennings immediately took his departure, andreturned to the inquest-room in about half-an hour, when hestated that the further examination had produced a very con-

clusive discovery as to the cause of death. Mr. Jenijingsthen. unfolding a piece of paper, said, "I found this enormouspiece of meat completely wedged in the opening of the throat,and it must have entirely blocked up the aperture of the air-pas-sage. So forcibly was it jammed into the opening leadingto the gullet, that I had very considerable difficulty in forc-ing it out with my finger. The cause of death, therefore, wasclearly suffocation from the lodgment of the piece of meat,which completely blocked up the commencement of the air-passage."The jury expressed their great satisfaction at the rrsult of the

further investigation that had taken place, especially as it had

had the effect of completely exculpating a young man of goodcharacter from the charge of having killed his father-in-law; andthey unanimously agreed in their verdict, that William Yost’s.death had been caused accidentally by the lodgment in his throatof a large piece of unmasticated meat.The solid piece of mutton wl.ich this unfortunate man attempted

to swailow, weighed upwards of an ounce and a half, it measured

two inches and three quarters in length, and four inches at its.greatest circumference.