View report page

17
receives information of a death concerning whose cause there is no medical
certificate, or receives a medical certificate in which the cause of death is not
satisfactorily specified, and generally in all cases of doubt, it ought to be his
function to communicate with the Coroner. Enquiry is needed in such cases,
not necessarily for the purpose of criminating anybody, but with the object
of getting at the real cause of such deaths. By the Coroner's enquiry not
only is a moral influence exercised to restrain crime, and in many cases are
groundless suspicions allayed, but important information is obtained and
diffused that leads to the prevention, in other instances, of disease, of
violence and of death.
SECTION VII.—On the Sanitary Work of 1802.
It appears now by the experience of several past years that about a ninth
part of the houses in the district of St. Giles's come under the charge of the
Sanitary Inspector every year. Inasmuch as few better class houses are
included in his inspection, the 532 houses improved in 1862 represent a continuance
of supervision of the poorer streets and courts of the district, that is
tolerably thorough and efficient. The total of 1,724 nuisances about houses
abated during the year, includes improvements in drainage and cleanliness, and
in the necessaries surrounding the several dwellings. Increased attention has
been paid to the ventilation of dwelling rooms, particularly such as are situate
over stables in mews.