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is authorised to check the illuminating power and chemical purity of the
gas supplied. For this purpose the Medical Officer has been appointed
Chemical Examiner under the Act. Until a special laboratory has been
provided by the Vestry, the examination of the gas must be conducted
on premises fitted up by the Gas Companies. This duty has not yet
been commenced; but I trust that the necessary arrangements are on
the point of completion. The execution of the Adulteration of Food
Act, has been deferred for the present by the Vestry. The provisions
of this Act do not appear to be sufficiently comprehensive to render it of
much practical utility. As an instance of the difficulty of bringing it
into useful operation, the experience of the City may be quoted. There
although every means have been taken by giving full publicity to the
measure, and by dispensing in certain cases with the payment of the
fees authorised by the Act, the applications to the Analyst have been so
few and unimportant as barely at present to justify the setting of the
machinery required for the execution of the Act, into operation. It may
however be hoped, that the experience now being gained, will lead to the
enactment of more effective provisions.
Coroners Inquests.—In the vast majority of instances, the cause of
death is determined by the medical practitioner in attendance during the
preceding sickness, and a certificate setting forth that cause, with other
important particulars, is forwarded to the Registrar. In certain other
cases, death taking place either without previous medical observation,
or under other circumstances demanding inquiry, the cause of death is
left to be determined by the Coroner's court. During last year 177
deaths were the objects of inquests. In 77 cases the decisive test of a
post-mortem examination was resorted to in order to throw light upon
the immediate cause of death. In most of the remaining cases, the
cause of death was probably made sufficiently clear from other evidence.
107 inquests were held upon males, and only 70 upon females. The
subjoined table of inquests explains to some extent this difference—
males are more liable to violence and dangerous accidents. Thus whilst
28 males perished from "poison," drowning," or other forms of
"violent death," only 10 females perished from like causes. 14
male children, and 7 female children under 1 year old were "suffocated
in bed,". In an analysis made of the Coroner's inquests for 1858,
attention was arrested by the circumstance, that whilst upon 21 female