Mr. John Coleby deposed, “I am a surgeon, residing at North Walsham, and I was summoned to attend the deceased last August; he complained of pain across the loins, particular in the region of the left kidney, and I treated him accordingly. After some time I suspected a stone had escaped into the bladder, I passed an instrument twice without any difficulty, in November, the first time without success, but the second time I detected a small stone. At that time his health was so indifferent, as to lead me to believe had I operated upon him, his life would have been the sacrifice. I then prescribed such medicine as I thought conducive to his benefit, with a view to prepare him for the operation, and I remarked to him previous to his going to Norwich—put yourself under my care, you have a stone in your bladder, but I cannot advise you to be operated upon immediately. He however went to Norwich, and I called upon the deceased whilst he was lodging at Mrs. Phillips’. I never saw a man so much altered as he was in so short a time, which I consider to have entirely arisen from the bad treatment he had received—I really thought he would die. Mr. Webber had previously opened an abscess, which had formed in the central lobe of the testis and pus {39} was escaping. On the 30th of March last, he returned to Knapton, and I called to see him the following day, I found him in a very debilitated and exhausted state. He was then labouring under irritation of the bladder, accompanied with an inflammatory affection of the left kidney. He continued to linger nearly six weeks, suffering great agony to the last, and on the 15th of May, I performed a post mortem examination on the body of the deceased, in the presence of Mr. Webber and Mr. Crickmay, of Norwich; Mr. Evans, of Coltishall; his assistant, Mr. Tibbetts, and my own assistant, Mr. Cheverton. I examined the left kidney, which was considerably enlarged, and in the renal capsule connected with the ureter, there had evidently been inflammation, for an abscess had formed there, which caused his death. I have no ill feeling towards any one in stating it to be my firm opinion, that this abscess, like all the others in his case, resulted from the violence used by Dr. Bell, in passing the instrument, and that which hastened his death. Since the man returned home, he told me frequently ‘he owed his death to Dr. Bell.’” Here the coroner, turning to the jury, observed, “The deceased died from natural causes, shown in the evidence of Mr. Coleby, for his death was owing to an abscess in the _renal_ capsule of the kidney, and that is sufficient.”