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18
Of the total number 89 were caused by violence ; of
these 76 were the result of accident, 11 of suicide, and 2
of execution. It is unsatisfactory to notice 10 instances
in which, after due investigation, no more definite
information as to the cause of death was obtained than
is conveyed by such verdicts as "found drowned,"
"found dead," &c. As the primary object of the
Coroner's Court is to determine the cause of death, it
would seem, in the absence of such determination bv
skilled evidence, somewhat superfluous for 12 jurymen
to be brought together by compulsion of the law,
simply to arrive at the self-evident conclusion that some
person had been " found dead."
Uncertified Deaths.—The number of deaths not
certified by medical testimony, which had so greatly
increased during the year 1881, underwent a very
considerable reduction in the past year. They numbered
in the latter 96, and were 29 less than in the year
preceding. It is scarcely necessary to repeat what has
been so frequently urged in these reports, that this
laxity in the registration of deaths requires an amendment
of the law, by which the cause of death shall be
made in every instance an ascertained fact, as far as
human knowledge can make it so. In such view of
the case it may be observed that if in all cases in which
the cause of death has not been certified by a Registered
Medical Practitioner, a preliminary medical examination
were substituted for the unskilled inquiry of the
Coroner's Officer, a large number of the inquests which
are now needlessly held might be dispensed with, at the
same time that the object of the Coroner's Court and
consequent security to life would be more completely
attained. Such course of procedure, as appears from
the observations on the subject contained in the