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Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1353, 13 January 1905, Page 2

In a letter to the Auckland Star in rat gard to deaths from heart disease, Dr. Bakewell states : —Will you allow me to protest against coroners receiving this nonsensical certificate of ‘heart failure* as a cause of sudden death, and thereupon declining to hold an inquest. I notice in a recent telegram from tbo. Thames that a _ r eg‘Btered practitioner gave a certificate of this kind for an old woman who lied dropped down dead, and was dead he arrived. That the old lady died from heart failure there can be no doubt, aa every one dies from heart failure. As long as the heart beats we consider tSS person alive, although respiration may have ceased, and the patient is perfectly unconsoious. But the question is, what caused the heart failure, and whas mador fatal pormane u Qt > and therefore fatal ? Every one who faints is suffering from heart failure, but every one whl faints does not die in the faint. x « Hear<i failure . is becoming nearly as aoie as ■ appendioitiee.’ used to oure a stomaoh-aoho witH'mC ? grains of calomel, followed by »n ounoa of ■ i castor oil, or a black draught. IJcw tut.- . operate for appendicitis. It is mneb moj profitable —twenty-five guineas being tfii I usual fee, I believe. Bat if the patient qfon*. a poor man, then the calomel an 4 oil treatment suffices. It seems r~ perhaps I am a prejudiced witoes3®S&»t the sudden deaths of old people are treatedln a v fry cavalier way by the coroners, who will accept a certificate of heart failure from any otray medical practitioner who may bfljgfed in. How doee he know that it is or suicide ? Old people are oftenrnqch in the way; vK they have property that some of their deoendanta think it quite time for them'to quit hold of. Or perhaps they are simply nuisances, who are too old or infirm to

maintain themselves, and are burdens to others. Anyhow, 1 heart failure ’ is sheer nonsense.”

English people often make tbs mistake of being not well enough d«— ~ , travejlinn in *•— ~ ; " --«•<»«« when - ooloDies. Their dowdiness is a frequent subnet of commons Magog CQjqatfiH—The Queen. ~