The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Page 9

or four times. I then got down, and found he was quite dead.
Q. How was he lying?
A. He was doubled up in the far corner of the cab, very much. in the
same position as I left him when I put him in. His head was hanging on
one side, and there was a handkerchief across his mouth. When I
touched him he fell into the other corner of the cab, and then I found
out he was dead. I immediately drove to the St. Kilda police station and
told the police.
At the conclusion of Royston's evidence, during which Gorby had been
continually taking notes, Robert Chinston was called. He deposed:--
I am a duly qualified medical practitioner, residing in Collins Street
East. I made a POST-MORTEM examination of the body of the
deceased on Friday.
Q. That was within a few hours of his death?

A. Yes, judging from the position of the handkerchief and the presence
of chloroform that the deceased had died from the effects of
ANAESTHESIA, and knowing how rapidly the poison evaporates I
made the examination at once.
Coroner: Go on, sir.
Dr. Chinston: Externally, the body was healthy-looking and well
nourished. There were no marks of violence. The staining apparent at
the back of the legs and trunk was due to POST-MORTEM congestion.
Internally, the brain was hyperaemic, and there was a considerable
amount of congestion, especially apparent in the superficial vessels.
There was no brain disease. The lungs were healthy, but slightly
congested. On opening the thorax there was a faint spirituous odour
discernible. The stomach contained about a pint of completely digested
food. The heart was flaccid. The right-heart contained a considerable
quantity of dark, fluid blood. There was a tendency to fatty
degeneration of that organ.
I am of opinion that the deceased died from the inhalation of some such
vapour as chloroform or methylene.
Q. You say there was a tendency to fatty degeneration of the heart?
Would that have anything to do with the death of deceased?
A. Not of itself. But chloroform administered while the heart was in
such a state would have a decided tendency to accelerate the fatal result.
At the same time, I may mention. that the POST-MORTEM signs of
poisoning by chloroform are mostly negative.
Dr. Chinston was then permitted to retire, and Clement Rankin, another
hansom cabman, was called. He deposed: I am a cabman, living in
Collingwood, and usually drive a hansom cab. I remember Thursday
last. I had driven a party down to St. Kilda, and was returning about
half-past one o'clock. A short distance past the Grammar School I was
hailed by a gentleman in a light coat; he was smoking a cigarette, and
told me to drive him to Powlett Street, East Melbourne. I did so, and he
got out at the corner of Wellington Parade and Powlett Street. He paid

me half-a-sovereign for my fare, and then walked up Powlett Street,
while I drove back to town.
Q. What time was it when you stopped at Powlett Street?
A. Two o'clock exactly.
Q. How do you know?
A. Because it was a still night, and I heard the Post Office clock strike
two o'clock.
Q. Did you notice anything peculiar about the man in the light coat?
A. No! He looked just the same as anyone else. I thought he was some
swell of the town out for a lark. His hat was pulled down over his eyes,
and I could not see his face.
Q. Did you notice if he wore a ring?
A. Yes! I did. When he was handing me the half-sovereign, I saw he
had a diamond ring on the forefinger of his right hand.
Q. He did not say why he was on the St. Kilda Road at such an hour?
A. No! He did not.
Clement Rankin was then ordered to stand down, and the Coroner then
summed up in an address of half-an-hour's duration. There was, he
pointed out, no doubt that the death of the deceased had resulted not
from natural causes, but from the effects of poisoning. Only slight
evidence had been obtained up to the present time regarding the
circumstances of the case, but the only person who could be accused of
committing the crime was the unknown man who entered the cab with
the deceased on Friday morning at the corner of the Scotch Church,
near the Burke and Wills' monument. It had been proved that the
deceased, when he entered the cab, was, to all appearances, in good
health, though in a state of intoxication, and the fact that he was found
by the cabman, Royston, after the man in the light coat had left the cab,

with a handkerchief, saturated with chloroform, tied over his