Mr. Payne, the city coroner, held an inquest on Saturday morning last at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on the body of William Field, aged 54, a carpenter, of Buckler's-alley, Cripplegate.
It appeared from the evidence of Mary Field, his wife, that on Tuesday week last she was walking in company with deceased along Butcherhall-lane, towards Newgate-street, and that while passing the house of Mr. Sergeant, a stationer, a large Newfoundland dog ran out of the passage, and, seizing deceased by the calf of the leg, bit through his trousers, and inflicted a very severe wound. The dog did not leave, she thought, until he was called away, and deceased was then taken to Mr. Sergeant's, where the wound was dressed, and having received some pecuniary assistance, he went home and remained there until the following Thursday. On that day he was taken to the hospital, but the inflammation which had commenced rapidly extended over the whole limb, and he died on the 5th inst., according to the opinion of the surgeon, of the injuries by the bite, and of general debility, the effect of intemperance.
Mr. Sergeant said it was a very quiet dog, and he had never known it, even from ill-usage, to have bitten anybody. He thought that deceased, as he passed, struck it with his stick. The dog he immediately destroyed.
Verdict: — "Accidental death."