Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1885-05-23 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

SUICIDE IN REMORSE.  At the University College Hospital, Dr. George Danford Thomas, coroner for Central Middlesex, has held an inquiry as to the death of Edward Shirt, alias Edwards, a carver and gilder, lately living at 27, Tovnishend-road, St. John's Wood, who expired in the above hospital from the effects of poison selfadministered. Sarah Anne Shirt, widow of the deceased, stated that deceased and herself were known by the name of Edwards, as she did not like the peculiar one of Shirt. A few weeks back witness went to Bexley on business, and during her absence, she afterwards ascertained, deceased had taken to betting and drinking. She received a letter from a friend, to which it was stated that deceased was about to desert her, and she at once returned home, where she found her husband intoxicated. On the morning of -Saturday, May 2, deceased suddenly got up and went into the next room, returning almost immediately. He then requested witness to repose in his arms for a few moments, but witness refused, stating that she luulto go to business, whereupon he remarked, "I hafe taken poison to settle myself." Witness asked him to state his reasons for doing so, but he merely said, "Go into the next room and you will see." Witness at once proceeded to the next room, where she found a bottle and a glass, each containing a small quantity of bluestone and salts of lemon. By the Coroner : Witness was not quite sober at the time. A doctor was sent for, but he did not come. Emetics of mustard and water were administered, and the deceased progressed so satisfactorily that the doctor was not again summoned. On the following Monday the witness went to work at Bexley, returning in the evening, as her husband was so ill. On her going to bed he seized her by the throat, and endeavoured to choke her. Thinking that he had got worse, and was losing his sanity, witness had him conveyed to the University College Hospital, having previously promised him that she would not divulge the fact that he had taken the poison for the purpose of selfdestruction. On the way to the hospital he told one of his bearers that he was sorry it bad passed through him, and he wished he had taken enough to" settle him." Sophia Glees, a lodger in the same house as deceased, stated that he had been getting tipsy ever since his wife went away, and had harboured an" improper woman "in his house. Witness saw deceased pounding the bluestone with a flatiron, and mixing it in a bottle. He told a man in a neighbouring public. house that he meant to "settle himself." John Walter Carr, hotm-surgeon at the hospital, said that the deceased was admitted on the sth inst., at eleven p.m., suffering from the effects of poison, and in a state of collapse. He died on the following Friday from the effects of poison by super-oxalic of potash and sulphate of copper, accelerated by previous intemperance. The coroner having remarked that the deceased had evidently committed this act from remorse for his behaviour to his wife, the jury returned a verdict of "Suicide while temporarily insane, the said insanity being caused by intemperance."