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45
to a high degree with offensive vapours, with heat and with
steam.
THE CORONER'S ENQUIRY.
The Jury empanelled to enquire into the circumstances
attending the deaths of William Garrod and Richard William
Baker held four sittings. The first was held on May 9th and
the last on June 12th. The Coroner, in his address to the
Jury, summed up the evidence at considerable length, and the
jury returned a verdict accompanied by two riders fully in
accord with the Coroner's charge.
Copied from the Depositions the verdict runs as follows:—
Verdict of the Jury.—That the deceased, William Garrod
and Richard William Baker, came to their deaths by poisoning
by sulphuretted hydrogen, in the Broadwall Boundary Sewer,
on 4th May, 1894, and that the said cause was accidental.
Riders to the Verdict.—We, the undersigned Jurors, empanelled
to inquire into the deaths of William Garrod and
Richard William Baker, are further of opinion that the cause
of death of these two men is to be attributed to the wretched
state of the Sewer, and the bad gases caused thereby, and
particularly wish to censure the parish authorities for their
careless supervision of this Sewer. We find that Messrs.
Younghusband, Barnes & Co., did not tamper with their
drains after the accident, and agree with the evidence given
on their behalf entirely.
THE RIDERS CONFLICT WITH THE VERDICT.
The Verdict of the Jury standing alone, namely, that the
men Garrod and Baker "came to their deaths from poisoning
by sulphuretted hydrogen" (and without reference to the
Riders which accompany it), is fully in accord with the
opinion of the experts expressed before the Court. The