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67
UNCERTIFIED DEATHS: PAYMENT OF JURORS.
Two deaths only were not certified either by a registered
medical practitioner or by a coroner. They were of a prematurely
born child and of a newly-born twin-child. The cases
were reported to the coroner who did not deem it necessary to
hold inquisition. In England and Wales the deaths not
certified were 19 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 :—
" (i) 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 out in my annual report for 1894 (page 70). These
recommendations having been approved by the Council, the
Public Control Committee were "authorised to attend as a
deputation before the Lord Chancellor in support of the
amendment of the law relating to coroners' inquests in the
County of London, in accordance with the recommendations"