Four bottles labelled pure alcohol found under William Henderson's bed as he lay unconscious in hospital tested positive for the poisonous chemical methanol, an inquest heard yesterday.

The inquest also heard a call from a pharmacist giving evidence to ban the sale of ethanol in Bermuda.

It was the second day of the inquest into the death of Mr. Henderson, 45, who died in the intensive care unit at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on December 11, 1995, after being admitted on December 7.

The inquest has already heard that levels of methanol 11 times the danger limit was found in his body -- which led to his death.

Yesterday Mr. Henderson's wife, Jennifer Henderson, of Southcourt Avenue, Paget, gave evidence to the inquest.

She said her husband showed signs of alcohol dependency in 1991 and from January, 1992 he received treatment in Bermuda and abroad.

Bottles found under victim's bed Mrs. Henderson also tried to cut off his means of buying alcohol by closing as many charge accounts as she could.

"Around November, 1995 I discovered two of the brown bottles under his bed marked ethanol and I knew he had used a credit card to buy the bottles.

"I did not know what ethanol was but I knew it was causing the unusual behaviour,'' she told the hearing.

In a Police statement she said that on Wednesday, December 6, her husband was all right, cooked supper and unpacked the groceries.

She later left home and spoke to him on the telephone at about 7 p.m. and realised from his speech that he had been drinking.

He went to bed at about 6 a.m. on December 7 and when she left for work was asleep.

She returned home at 4.25 p.m. the same day and saw her husband in a chair in his bedroom with a juice bottle and a drinking glass on the floor beside him.

"He indicated that he was feeling terrible,'' she told Police. "He said he felt sick.'' Mrs. Henderson went out and came back about 5.30 p.m. and Mr. Henderson was still in his bedroom. "I was angry because it seemed he had been drinking and made himself sick.'' She could hear him moaning and later heard him vomiting then heard him call out "help me, help me''.

"He was sitting at the end of the bed. He said `I cannot breathe' and he asked for water, but he could not even sip it. Later he could not even speak'', she said in her statement.

An ambulance was called and Mr. Henderson was taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Mrs Henderson told Police that she went home from the hospital and found four bottles of ethanol under her husband's bed. All had labels showing they had been bought from the Paget Pharmacy.

She took the bottles to the ICU on December 8 and handed them to a nurse -- who passed them on to the Police.

Receipts produced in court showed that on December 6 Mr. Henderson had gone into Paget Pharmacy twice and each time bought two bottles of ethanol.

The inquest has already heard that two of the four bottles were full when they were found, one was half full and the other was empty and that they all tested positive for methanol.

Police also seized two bottles of ethanol from Paget Pharmacy after Mr.

Henderson's death and both tested positive for methanol. Other bottles seized tested normally.

Ethanol is pure alcohol and is found in a diluted form in drinks such as rum and vodka.

Methanol is also a form of alcohol but is more commonly seen as methylated spirits. It is a colourless imflammable liquid used as a solvent and should not be drunk.

The inquest has already heard that the ethanol and methanol sold at the Paget Pharmacy were bottled at the Bermuda Pharmacy.

Barry Jones, pharmacy manager at the Bermuda Pharmacy in December, 1995, continued to give evidence at the hearing yesterday.

The Bermuda Pharmacy, he said, was responsible for supplying methanol and ethanol to pharmacies under the Phoenix Stores umbrella.

He said ethanol was sold primarily for use as ear drops and came in three sizes -- one ounce and two ounce dropper bottles for ear drops and 140 millilitre bottles.

Ethanol was delivered in one gallon bottles and the methanol was kept in a 56 gallon drum at the Bermuda Pharmacy, said Mr. Jones, who added that methanol was sold in litre and half litre bottles.

Occasionally customers would ask for gallon bottles to be filled with methanol -- but Mr. Jones said they were not left on the premises.

A student pharmacist, Rebecca Patterson, also worked at the Bermuda Pharmacist in December 1995, but both she and Mr. Jones said she never bottled methanol or went near the methanol drum.

Mr. Jones said he could not explain how methanol got into ethanol bottles but he admitted that there could have been better bottling procedures, with batch numbers, date of bottling and the person who bottled it written down.

He added: "Personally, I think that the law should be changed so that we cannot sell pure alcohol at all because of the potential for abuse. That is the way it is in Britain.

"I do not see the need to dispense it at all personally. The only real use we have for pure alcohol is for ear drops.

"You can use other things that serve the same purpose and which people would not abuse.

"People say they want pure alcohol and I think that means ethanol. I think it is more of a historical thing in Bermuda and I think they could change.'' Coroner Will Francis is expected to sum up today for the jury. Sgt. Donald Grant appears for the Crown, Sonia Grant appears for the Henderson family and Richard Horseman appears for the Bermuda Drug Company -- now known as BDC.