View report page

28
fact, some one should not be made responsible for the neglect to
provide medical advice for a child who ultimately dies " suddenly
" or is " found dead" as a consequence of an attack
of pneumonia, that may have extended over one, two, or three
weeks, or even a longer time ? Not many weeks before this present
writing one of the " Peculiar People " was found guilty of manslaughter,
having neglected to provide medical attendance for his
child, who died of pneumonia,, although it was admitted that
every care, otherwise, had been bestowed on the patient; and,
notwithstanding the well-known fact that with such care a very
large proportion of the cases, especially if one lung only is
affected, will recover. It need scarcely be added that the parents'
neglect had its origin in conscientious motives, however mistaken
and absurd. Can such a plea be made in all or many of the cases
to which I have here alluded : and should negligent parents
escape without punishment—without censure even ?
True, the facts I have thus briefly brought under notice may be
explained—and they certainly need explanation; for as they
baldly appear in the returns of mortality they would seem to indicate
an indifference to life which is not only shocking, but may be
in some degree the cause of that terrible infantile mortality which
all thinking persons deplore. I will only add that it is notorious
that medical men are constantly called in to see children
sick beyond the hope of recovery, in order that no fuss may arise
after death—the death certificate being all-sufficient. No doubt
in many cases, where the diagnosis is quite clear, the certificate is
given, although the practitioner may be conscious of the neglect
of the parents in applying for assistance when " too late and,
I dare say, that in some at least of the cases which come before
the Coroner the inquest has been brought about by the judicious
refusal of medical men to give certificates under such circumstances.
I venture to think, however, that a certificate should not be
given in any such case, and that not only should an inquest be
held, but that the mere fact of the responsible person in charge
of the infant having failed to obtain that medical advice and
assistance which the poor may have for the asking, should be regarded
as establishing a prima fade charge of neglect, for which
he or she should appear and answer at another tribunal in the
absence of exculpatory evidence.
DEATHS "NOT CERTIFIED."
The number of deaths " not certified," that is, of persons who
were attended in their last illness by non-qualified practitioners—
generally professing to hold unregisterable foreign degrees, often
obtained by purchase, in absentia, was 33. The numbers in the
two previous years were 30 and 21. In my anuual report for 1872
I mentioned that I had some time previously called the attention
of the Registrar General to the desirability of an addition to the
form of certificate of death provided for the use of medical men,