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90
and the present form of certificate (which is
optional) were amended, there would be more
exactitude in defining what was the cause of death,
and the temptation to omit stating unpleasant facts
removed. It is to be regretted that the Committee
could not recommend (1) that there should be a
fee for each certificate, and (2) that superintendentregistrars
should be medical men. As regards the
former, the payment of fees for notification is good
precedent, even if the duty of certification be classed
as a duty due from medical men to the State, and
as to the latter, which is rather more concerned with
the statistical side of the question, it is certainly
desirable that the decision whether a certificate
dealing with medical facts be sufficient, should be
left in the hands of medical men. It is also possible
that the knowledge that the information contained
in the certificate would be liable to be reviewed
by a confrere might encourage medical men
to be more painstaking in filling up that document.
Recommendation 9, would present several difficulties,
which it would not be easy to get over.
Who is to decide the age of the still-birth? If the
delivery has been effected under the charge of a
midwife, what is to be the check if she pronounce
the still-birth to' be under seven months ? and if
she do declare the same to be seven months old,
what is to happen when the medical man is called
in, after death ? It seems according to