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From the Maidstone Journal, 28 May 1799.
Dartford, May 25.
The following particulars may be disposed of as fact:-
Henry Bateman, a native of this town, who lived, as assistant hostler, at the
"Swan with Two Necks," in Land Lane, was, on the morning of the third instant,
found dead in his bed. From the decision of the Coroner's inquest, it appeared,
that is death was occasion by taken arsenic, but the body was not opened to
discover if whether this was really the case or not, and the opinion arose,
merely from finding a quantity of that drug in the room where he lay, as the
body was not in the least swollen, nor did it display any symptoms of having
expired by so violence a poison. On the eighth it was sent to this place and
interred the same day, but the mother of the young man being from home at the
time, desired on her return the next day to have the body taken up again, which
was accordingly done. Being taken from the coffin, it was laid on a bed covered
with blankets; and although in a close room where a fire was continually kept it
continued without any alteration in the features, or the least sign of
putrefaction, until Tuesday the 21st, (19 days) when it was finally committed to
the gloomy mansions of death. The above circumstance has given rife to much
conjecture as the cause of this young man's death, and surprise at the body
continuing such a length of time free from every offensive smell.
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