Evidence of the cause of death.

  • Hussey, E. L. (Edward Law)
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Evidence of the cause of death. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the deceased, and the cause of death. Under the Coroners Act of 1887, the statements in the In- quisition “may be made in concise and ordinary language.” It is not necessary to put into the Inquisition the barbarous words sometimes used in Medical evidence and certificates. They are often symptoms of the last stages of life, — the effect, indeed, of disease: the disease, which is the cause of them, — the causa causans, — not being named; and the question, — of importance in an enquiry before the Coroner, . . whether, or not, the death was from “ natural causes ” ? . . is put aside: natural causes having no place in the “nomenclature of diseases.” The terms for sickness, — in ordinary language, — are what the friends of a deceased person give to the Registrar, when they bring information of a death, without a Medical certificate: and he enters them, — or many Registrars do, — without question, in the Register as the cause of death, . . unless something falls from the friends, to make him think the Coroner ought to be informed that application has been made to register the death. In these “ uncertified ” cases, — and even in those which are “ certified,” — it would, in many cases, save trouble and expense, if the Coroner was fur- nished with the particulars, immediately the death is registered. “ A person may now be buried,” — wrote Mr. Herford in 1877,— “without any Cer- tificate ,