View report page

8
incurred for the removal of one is said to be as great as for the removal of several
when carried by the same conveyance. In the cases under consideration however,
it was evidently more remunerative to the undertakers to deposit the bodies in
the roof of the Church than to convey them to a cemetery. The Jury in their
verdict animadverted strongly on the practice of undertakers receiving certificates
for the burial of still-born children from unqualified midwifes, as such a practice
afforded facilities of escape to the perpetrators of abortion and infanticide; and
the Jury expressed an opinion that any person who should bury or assist in
burying a still-bom child without receiving, before the period of interment, a
certificate signed by a qualified Medical Practitioner, should be liable to the
penalty of a misdemeanour. It is not an uncommon practice with a certain class
of undertakers to place a still-born child in the coffin used for the body of an
adult, so as to avoid expense. This practice is so highly reprehensible from the
facility it affords for the commission of crime, that in all cases where a stillborn
child, or one said to be still-born shall be interred with the body of an
adult, the parties engaged in such practice should be liable to a fine or imprisonment
upon information laid before a magistrate. The only exception to this rule
should be where the mother has died in giving birth to a still-born child, when
in such a case the mother and child might be interred in the same coffin. If the
law required that the burial of a still-born child should be prohibited unless the
undertaker charged with the burial of such still-bom child had obtained a certificate
from a Medical Practitioner stating that such child was still-born, the
dreadful, and I believe increasing crime of infanticide might be checked. As there
would probably be some difficulty in every instance of a still-birth, in obtaining
a medical certificate, the local authority should appoint a Medical Man to inspect
the body of every child and indeed of every adult where a certificate of death has
not been obtained from a Medical Practitioner, and that the Medical Officer so
appointed by the local authority should be required to give the necessary certificate;
but if in his opinion there were any suspicious circumstances respecting the
cause of death, then it should be the duty of such Medical Officer to give information
to the Coroner upon the matter, and leave it to him to deal with the case
in such way as he may deem necessary. Although numerous bodies of children
are found in the public streets and elsewhere, it must not be inferred that in all
these cases, the children have been murdered, for in some instances the bodies
may be deposited in the public way to avoid the expense of burial.
The deaths in the "Workhouse have been 70. In this number are included
8 deaths from Fever, 3 from Diarrhoea, and 1 from Small-pox, (a child aged
4 years who had not been vaccinated).
The Medical Officers of this Union attended 3692 new cases of sickness,
including 37 of Small-pox, of which number 19 had not been vaccinated, 10 had
been previously vaccinated, of 7 there is no record whether they had or had not
been vaccinated, and in Mr. Seqtteiea's District a severe case of Small-pox occurred
in a patient who had had a previous attack of that disease. As, from the concurrent
testimony of the Medical Profession, it appears that Small-pox may be
greatly mitigated in its effects, if not. entirely prevented by vaccination when
properly performed, it has been thought right by the Coroner of the Central
Division of Middlesex to hold an inquest upon the body of a child who had died
from Small-pox, in order to ascertain whether there had been criminal neglect on
the part of the parents. The parents of the child, it appeared, had neglected to
have it vaccinated, notwithstanding that they had received the usual notice, informing
them of the law respecting vaccination, and who in refusing to comply