THE NEW CORONERS ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4804, 15 August 1876, Page 3

THE NEW CORONERS ACT.

TO THE EDITOR Or THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sie, —An Esculapian, fortunately favored by circumstances from the necessity of engaging in the keen and bitter struggles of colonial medical practice, and one who neither desires nor 'would hold a coronership, may possibly be permitted to make a few remarks regarding the proposed changes in the coroner system. It has been the lot of this Esculapian to see much ef colonial medical practice both in Victoria and New Zealand, and to enjoy many opportunities of observing and dispassionately weighing the advantages and the disadvantages of the operation of the present system, in which some medical men in active praetice are allowed to sit in public judgment over matters affecting the reputation and weal of their professional competitors and opponents. He has met with impartial and honorable medicocoroners, who appeared to hold the scales fairly; but only too frequently he has seen the office used, either unconsciously or wilfully, for personal advantages and advertisement, and to wound a rival. Let us take two example*. The first is flagrant enough ; the second requires a little of that Johnsonian insight beyond the mere words. Ist. In a town in the Middle Island of about 450 inhabitants, ■with two medical men, one young, energetic, and soleer; the other entitled to the sobriquet of.: Old Identity, phlegmatic, and sprcewh. The junior had British diplomas, while the senior rested on the possession of those New York and Philadelphia parchments most tckolate* now know about; both were in the N.Z. M ' v Register, tbe latter having had the good ru i to be in practice before Medical Begistration Acts came fnto force. Patienta xbigrated between theße two. Now the junior was in fashion, at another time the senior's praiaee were loudly sung; but it mattered littlo with thelower class of patients, vexation and envy only stepped in when betterpaticnts deserted the senior, and various were the little intrigues to briogback the runaways; indeedsomeof the chapters in "Middlemarch" might have been written in this village. The rupture that came under this Esculapian's knowledge was as follows : A lady, of the usual goldfields landlady class, with a tongue smooth as honey in her milder moods, but terrible like a war-whoop when aroused, fell sick, tried first the potions of the senior, and then resorted to the nostrums of the junior, but it availed her not;_ her family formed so favorable an impression of the junior's skill in her case that the next time a member was taken unwell, the junior was again consulted ; but here again our mortality shone out, man died. Now this defection of

a whole family sorely grieved the senior practitioner, and he barely concealed his chagrin and jealousy ; and one evening while sipping with his usual bar companions, when the matter cropped up, boasted aloud that if he, as coroner (for he was the coroner of the district) choose to make a post mortem examination of so and so's death, and to hold an inquest, people would soon see what a mess his young professional brother- had made of so and so's case. This came to the younger medical man's ears, and he demanded that an inquest should be held. It was held, and the jury unanimously agreed that " so-and-so died from natural causes." 2 ad. A strong able-bodied man was found dead one day not ten miles from a large city in New Zealand. The constable who was first on the spot called in the nearest medical man, and both visited the scene of the accident and saw tho mutilated remains. The medical man took a note of the" position of the remains, and of the surrounding circumstances, and assisted the constable in removing the body. An inquest followed, the coroner was a medical man in active practice, various witnesses were called, among them a medical man, but not the only medical man who had the opportunity of observing the body in situ. No ! another who had by accident seen the remains after their removal, and who lived sufficiently far outside tho coroner's operations as not to be considered as a competitor. These are only two cases, but others of different degrees and kinds could also be cited. There are several ways of managing these matters. It may be by disposal of the post mortem inspection to a brother who is in tho habit of throwing consultations in one's way ; it may be by holding an inquest in one case, and thinking it perfectly unnecessary in anothar equally as glaring where the coroner himself is concerned ; it may be by preventing the attendance of a professional brother ; or, lastly, it may be by adroitly worded judicial remarks, conveying suggestions not supported by the evidence, and possibly intended to impress the public ear. Sir, it is an anomaly that such a system should have been permitted to reign so long, and it is still more anomalous for medical men other I than medico-coroners to stand up in tho House

and urge the continuance of one of the chief causes of much secret heartburning in the medical profession in the colonies. It would be equally as fair and just to allow K.M.'s to accept briefs and to permit circuit and other Judges to draw up deeds, &c, for private parties, whose cases might possibly come under their judicial cognizance probably the following v. eek. Some of the arguments that have been advanced with regard to this measure appear very childish. Fancy dilating on the ancient nature of the office as a reason for its persistence ; might we not just as easily revert to fig leaves and bull-baiting ? Again, that none but technically trained medical men can properly adjudieate in cases of gunshot wounds, infanticide, and se forth. First qnery, are all medical men, or even a respectable moiety of them, sufficiently trained in what has been called judicial acumen ? Second query, why apply this to medical cases alone ? In cases of fire inquisitions, e.g., why not have a skilled sweep as a judge? And thirdly, does Dr. Hodgkinson intend that the coroners shall be both judges and witnesses, and is he aware that all well-trained lawyers are supposed to have studied medical jurisprudence? For even the present system does not save the expense of other medical men being called as witnesses. The Government would, in most persons-' opinion, have acted wisely if they had introduced the methods now in force in France, Germany, and Scotland, and have abolished once for all these eminently unsatisfactory, cumbrous, and slow coroners' inquisitions. Apologising for the length of this letter, —I am, &c, ESCTJLAPIDS MaJOE. August 10. Note.—The argument that a medical man should not be a coroner because, it prevents him attending to his patients has this much in it, that if medical men can afford time to investigate charges of incendiarism, and to act for honor as J.P.'s, they certainly might be asked to do service on juries, a project they will not like.