Mr. James Holman, an Under-Graduate of Cambridge, committed suicide on
Tuesday morning, in his rooms in Catherine Hall, by taking laudanum, owing to excitement occasioned by being " plucked " in the "previous examination" or " little-go." It is stated that he had read hard for the two last examinations, and had been unsuccessful in both. A small glass stood on a chair by his bedside, with his candlestick, in which the candle had burned down to the last. On the same chair his dressing-glass was placed, as if he had used it for the purpose of watch- ing the changes in his features before he became insensible.
An inquest was held on the body of Mr. Holman on Tuesday ; at which a letter to his mother, written by him immediately before taking the laudanum, was read. In this letter he expressed great anguish of mind that Isis devotion night and day to his studies had not been successful. The Jury could not agree, two of them being for a verdict of file de se, and the ten others for one of mental derangement. A fresh Jury was summoned in the evening; who returned a verdict of " Temporary Insanity."
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