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68
(.Diphtheria); University Hospital, 1 (Enteric Fever); Middlesex
Hospital, 1 (Enteric Fever); St. George's Hospital, 1
(Diphtheria); Evelina Hospital, 1 (Whooping-Cough); Children's
Hospital, Great Ormonde Street, 1 (.Diphtheria);
Incubator, Earl's Court Exhibition, 1 (Diarrhœa). One
death from Enteric Fever took place at a private house.
UNCERTIFIED DEATHS: PAYMENT OF JURORS
One death only was not certified either by a registered
medical practitioner or by a coroner. It was of a laundryman,
aged 48, who had been attending at a hospital for heart
disease. The case was reported to the coroner, who did not
deem it necessary to hold inquisition. In England and Wales
the deaths not certified were 1.8 per cent. of total deaths; the
proportion in London was 0.6.
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 by the House hitherto, to give
effect to the recommendations of the Committee. The Public
Control Committee of the London County Council have also