“You are Sir Julian Freke,” said the Coroner, “and live at St. Luke’s House, Prince of Wales Road, Battersea, where you exercise a general direction over the surgical side of St. Luke’s Hospital?”
Sir Julian assented briefly to this definition of his personality.
“You were the first medical man to see the deceased?”
“And you have since conducted an examination in collaboration with Dr. Grimbold of Scotland Yard?”
“You are in agreement as to the cause of death?”
“Will you communicate your impressions to the Jury?”
“I was engaged in research work in the dissecting room at St. Luke’s Hospital at about nine o’clock on Monday morning, when I was informed that Inspector Sugg wished to see me. He told me that the dead body of a man had been discovered under mysterious circumstances at 59 Queen Caroline Mansions. He asked me whether it could be supposed to be a joke perpetrated by any of the medical students at the hospital. I was able to assure him, by an examination of the hospital’s books, that there was no subject missing from the dissecting room.”
“William Watts, the dissecting-room attendant.”
“Is William Watts present?” inquired the Coroner of the officer.
William Watts was present, and could be called if the Coroner thought it necessary.
“I suppose no dead body would be delivered to the hospital without your knowledge, Sir Julian?”
“Thank you. Will you proceed with your statement?”
“Inspector Sugg then asked me whether I would send a medical man round to view the body. I said that I would go myself.”
“I confess to my share of ordinary human curiosity, Mr. Coroner.”
Laughter from a medical student at the back of the room.
“On arriving at the flat I found the deceased lying on his back in the bath. I examined him, and came to the conclusion that death had been caused by a blow on the back of the neck, dislocating the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae, bruising the spinal cord and producing internal haemorrhage and partial paralysis of the brain. I judged the deceased to have been dead at least twelve hours, possibly more. I observed no other sign of violence of any kind upon the body. Deceased was a strong, well-nourished man of about fifty to fifty-five years of age.”
“In your opinion, could the blow have been self-inflicted?”