The Argus 25th Sep 1899 Article 9031621-3-001
Poor bugger. We have all had hiccups and they can vary from amusing to moderately annoying but this version is pretty extreme. After finding this article I had a bit of a search and found other people who had died of the same cause. I can imagine how an extreme case of the hics might make breathing difficult but to die from it….yikes…
Especially when some people have them for 68 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Osborne_%28hiccups%29