The Coroner and His Medical Neighbours

Abstract

SOME years ago I read to the Society my notes upon a Coroner's work, and I had not considered the time had yet come for any further reference to the subject of Coroners' practice; but as I am informed that a short note from me would be of interest, I am emboldened to speak on "The Coroner and his Medical Neighbours," with some criticisms which may be tolerated as coming from one who has acted as a coroner for five-and-twenty years, and has heard medical evidence given upon nineteen thousand deaths. It is generally known that coroners are almost all either lawyers or doctors; yet a few are neither, being only persons who own a freehold plot of land-a quaint qualification-a survival from very ancient times. I observe at the present time, in an advertisement issued by the London County Council, asking for candidates for a coronership, the same requirement, but no demand for medical or legal knowledge. I do not profess to know the exact attitude which a legal coroner assumes to' the doctors he calls before him; but I do know that the more courteous his attitude is towards them, the better he is served by their evidence. Even medical coroners, however, differ in the relations they establish with the medical men who have to make a livelihood in the coroners' districts