The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1890-12-13 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

DISCOVERY OF A BODY.  On Wednesday an inquest was held at the Kenilworth Poliae-office before Dr. Wynter, coroner, touching the death of a newly-born female infant, whose parentage the police have been unable to discover.—Mr. F. Wyer was foreman of the jury, —Edward Heritage, pump maker, Warwickroad, Kenilworth, said that at about a quarter to eight o'clock on Monday morning he was going to work with a man named Joseph Aitken to Mr. French's, at Canley. They were passing Crackley bridge when Aitken said to him "There is a parcel in the ditch." Ho took it up, and on opening it found the dead body of an infant wrapped in a piece of canvas. He left Aitken in charge and informed the police. The body was on the side opposite to the footpath. Just after a man named Clarke came up. He did not see any woman on the road. There did not appear to be any attempt at concealment. He afterwards met a man he did not know near the scene.—By Mr. Wyer : He met him near Gibbet-hill about half-a-mile away. The man was going to his ordinary work on the road. He would not have to pass the body.—Joseph Aitken, pumpmaker, Warwick - road, Kenilworth, also gave evidence. He remarked that when his companion was about to pick up the parcel he told him to be careful and not disturb it. —The Coroner; Why did you tell him that, did you expect to find a child's body about Crackley Wood 2—Witness . No, sir; but I have heard talk of bodies being found in parcels.—Witness, continuing, said there was blood upon the wrapping. He did not think the parcel was thrown out of a trap.—At this juncture the reporters, at the desire of the coroner, retired for a few minutes. On being re-admitted, evidence was given by Police-sergeant Allcutt to the effect that there were no marks of violence on the body. He had made inquiries about the wrapping brown paper and canvas and having heard the explanation given to the jury (in the absence of the reporters) by the Coroner, he did not wish, for police purposes, the result to be made public at present.—Police-constable Sloss, in reply to the Coroner, said he was on the road on the Saturday and Sunday previously, but did not notice the parcel or anything suspicious.—Policesergeant Allcutt, continuing, said the brown paper was quite dry, white the surrounding objects were covered with hoar frost. He should assume from this that the parcel had not been deposited there long.---Dr. John Clarke, surgeon, practising at Kenilworth, said he should imagine the child was born about 10 or 15 days before. He had made a post-mortem examination, and as a result he was of opinion that the child had breathed —the lungs were inflated. There was nothing whatever in the stomach. There was no indication of violence. He was not in a position to say the child had had a separate existence.—The Coroner summed up, pointing out the absence of evidence (beyond that given by him to the jury in the absence of the reporters), as to the child's parents, or the person who deposited the parcel in the ditch. The medical witness could not say the child had a separate existence, or that it had died from violence, but if the jury believed death was due to exposure they could return a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.— The jury almost immediately returned a verdict of "Found dead, but that there was no evidence to show the child had a separate existence."  The Spirit of the Times, of New York, says:—" An extraordmary advance in the use of cocoa deems to have taken place of late years in England. In the House of Commons this last session the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, called attention to it as a cause for much of the falling off of the use of coffee. He attributed it in a measure to the position a preparation of cocoa known as 'Grateful and Comforting ' had taken. In accord with this suggestion it may be interesting to follow the course cocoa has taken in England since 1832, when the duty which had been standing at 6d. per lb., with an importation of under half a million pounds, was reduced to 2d. per lb., and not long after we find the homakopathic doctrine of medicine introduced into the kingdom, and that the use of cocoa was specially advocated by physicians adopting that mode of practice. Soon after we find the first homeopathic chemists esablished in England (the Deaths. firm of James Epps and ('o.) produced a special