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UNCERTIFIED DEATHS.
Two deaths (against 14, 4, and 2, in the preceding three
years respectively) were returned as not having been certified,
either by a registered medical practitioner or by a Coroner.
The ages at death were 4 minutes, and 79 years, respectively, the
cause of death in the first case being premature birth, and in
the other case heart disease. Information as to the cause of
death of the infant was given by the midwife in attendance.
The deaths were duly reported to the Coroner, who did not
deem it necessary to hold inquests. The proportion of uncertified
deaths to total deaths in Kensington was less than 0.1
per cent. The relative proportion of these cases in London
was 0.7 per cent.; in England and Wales it was 2.3 per cent.
The subject of uncertified deaths was considered, in the
Session of 1893, by a Select Committee of the House of Commons,
appointed " to inquire into the sufficiency of the existing law
as to the disposal of the dead, for securing an accurate record
of the causes of death in all cases, and especially for detecting
them when death may have been due to poison, violence, or
criminal neglect." The recommendations of the Committee
were summed up in ten paragraphs, of which it is only necessary
to cite the first two, as follows:—
(1) "That in no case should a death be registered without production of
a certificate of the cause of death, signed by a registered medical
practitioner, or by a Coroner after inquest.
(2) "That in each sanitary district a registered medical practitioner
should be appointed as public medical certifier of the cause of death
in cases in which a certificate from a medical practitioner in attendance
is not forthcoming."
No action has been taken, hitherto, by the House, to give
effect to the recommendations of the Committee. The Public
Control Committee of the London County Council have also
dealt with the question, and arrived at conclusions, on which
they based a variety of recommendations, which were fully set