Report to the honorable Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, on certain imperfect mortality returns, relating to the verdicts of coroners' juries / by Hy. Letheby.

  • Letheby, H. (Henry), 1816-1876.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the honorable Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, on certain imperfect mortality returns, relating to the verdicts of coroners' juries / by Hy. Letheby. 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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    a few shillings, where they often lie undescribed, unadvertised, unknown, until the constable sum- mon a jury in the immediate neighbourhood ; who, with no evidence before them of identity, or with little satisfactory evidence as to the circumstances of the death, bring in the common verdict of ^ Found drowned,' orFound deadand the unnamed corpse is then committed without further delay, trouble, or expense to the parish burial ground. Persons, continues Dr. Farr, may thus disappear and be buried, before their friends miss them, in the dense population of the Metropolis. Now, without adopting the French Morgue in all its details, some steps should be taken to remedy the defects in this part of our system of police. The bodies ' found dead' should be conveyed to one central place where they may lie until notice had been given to the Coroners, and opportunities had been afforded for identifying them. Advertisements drawn up under the direction of the Coroners, should be sent to the newspapers, and placards to the police offices, before the inquests were held; which would enable the parties concerned to identify the dead, and the juries to ascertain the cause of death, in compliance with the clause in the Registration Act. That it is the duty of the Coroner to specify the cause of death in every case where he holds an inque(5t of death, is manifest from the wording