Observations on Coroners

WILLIAM HEWITT, Surgeon, NORTH WALSHAM ,
Author of an Essay on the Encroachments of the German Ocean, with a design to arrest its further depredations.
“ Unius ætatis sunt quæ fortiter flunt , quæ pro utilitate scribuntur æterna .”
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY SAMUEL DAYNES, SAINT STEPHEN’S STREET, NORWICH; SOLD BY JOHN CHURCHILL, MEDICAL BOOKSELLER, PRINCES’ ST., SOHO, LONDON; OURY AND CO., LONDON ST., NORWICH; JOHN MOWER, NORTH WALSHAM, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.
Entered at Stationers’ Hall .
Sir,
The importance of the subject, I humbly anticipate will be sufficient excuse for the liberty I have taken, in dedicating to you the result of my experience connected with Coroners’ Inquests.
The instances narrated with reference to apparent delinquencies, in non-medical Coroners, contained in the following pages, occurred in my immediate neighbourhood, and may be believed, as resting on the brow of truth. Yet I most heartily coincide in acknowledging the integrity and worth, of Gentlemen pursuing vocations, for which they have alone been amply educated; and it is only when they assume a position, or accept office to execute duties they are incompetent to perform, as is frequently observed, that I deem it my duty to wield my pen against such appointments: not less for the sake of humanity, than for the dignity, and I might add, the disregarded importance of the medical profession, to which I have the honor to belong.
I am, Sir,
Your very humble and obedient Servant, The Author.
“If there’s a hole in a’your coats, I rede you tent it: A Chield’s amang you, taking notes, And, faith, he’ll prent it.”
It is no inglorious vanity in Englishmen to consider the laws of their country afford an example for other nations to follow. Founded on the lasting rock of integrity, shewn in the strict regard for the liberty of the subject, they command the obedience and the admiration of thousands. But events, as they transpire, unfold the humiliating circumstance, that blemishes dimly seen in the distance become prominent on the near approach of extending knowledge; thus disclosing the fact, that this is a progressionary as well as a probationary world in which we live, and that perfection in human institutions cannot be attained, unless, through the power of an Infinite Being, the mortal in his earthly career be permitted to assume immortality.