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into the cause of death by violent means, and the remaining
14 were inquests on sudden deaths, the majority of
which, it is to be presumed, involved a medical opinion.
In but few instances, however, was this opinion sought
for or obtained, a circumstance which, I contend, renders
these inquiries farces in every sense of the term. One of
two causes must operate to produce this extraordinary
indifference to due investigation: either the jurors must
consider themselves as competent as medical men to
decide points of intricacy and difficulty in physiology and
pathology, which is simply absurd; or they must dispense
with medical evidence purely to save their time, which
can hardly be said to be just either to the memory of the
dead or, in many doubtful cases, to the character of the
living.
sanitation of the yeaR.
Table VI. in the Appendix will show what has been
accomplished during the year in the way of sanitation, the
amount of which, it will be seen, far exceeds that of 1864.
Without entering into minute details, which indeed the
fulness of the table renders quite unnecessary, I may
remark that the total length of sewers and drains constructed
to the present date is 45,092 feet, and that 297
cesspools have been in consequence abolished, and 271
water-closets formed.
Apart from this, 1050 houses and premises have been
inspected by the Surveyor and myself.
Scavengering on a somewhat large scale has been carried
out, and the most strenuous exertions used (in many of
the low-lying neighbourhoods especially) to render such
scavengering continuously efficient. Until, however, the
removal of dust and refuse is made compulsory on all
occupants of houses, instead of being simply permissive, as
it now is, it can scarcely be expected that the cleansing
operations for so large a district can be so fully carried out
as to fulfil the requirements we shall doubtless be soon