On the office and duties of coroner : with suggestions for parliamentary inquiry, proposed legislation, and reform of the office / by William Hardwicke.

  • Hardwicke, William.
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the office and duties of coroner : with suggestions for parliamentary inquiry, proposed legislation, and reform of the office / by William Hardwicke. 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.

    69/74 (page 19)
    baa often important medico-legal bearings where persons are charged with causing the death of another. The knowledge of the character of disease of the organs is of great importance in cases of deaths in Prison. The capability of a prisoner to endure hard labour, a punishment by low diet, forced exercise, or confinement, or the danger of any exposure to cold, are questions that may have important issues. 4. The existence or otherwise of pregnancy in suicide of unmarried females by poisoning and drown- ing is often wanting, and leads to difficulty as motives for the act. 5. Again, with regard to the class of cases where no post-mortem examination is needed, much difference of opinion will prevail. It is a common expression that “ an inquest without a post-mortem examination is a farce.” I do not agree with that dictum. Suicides in most of the cut-throat, hanging, pistol shot, and some poisoning and drowning cases, are perfectly clear, requiring no internal post-mortem examination of the body to elucidate the cause of death, or to attribute blame to any one. There are poisoning cases that demand special examinations. Deaths from accidents and violence (witnessed by others), immediately fatal accidents in the streets, and on railways, generally gain nothing from post-mortem examinations. In numerous cases of children found dead in bed, over- laid” in bed, with parents, or in mother’s aims.