Before particularising the course of practice of such an officer, it appears requisite to state other grounds on which intervention appears requisite for the verification of the fact of death, and the mode of death, by the inspection of the body previously to interment.
§ 188. It is admitted that some additional arrangements are yet wanting for the complete attainment of the proper civic and technical purposes of registration:—as depositaries of pre-appointed evidence of the fact of death, to determine questions of private rights:—as depositaries of evidence for purposes of medical science and public health, to show the extent and prevalence of common causes of disease incident to different occupations and different localities—and of the data for tables of insurance, as well as for the recovery of sums assured, where the proof of age is not admitted in the policy. Any one who is unknown to the local registrar may go and register as a fact his own death, of which a certified copy of the registry will, according to the 38th clause of the Act, be evidence in a court of law. Cases of the registration of false statements have already been detected; some have been made with the view to successions and to the obtainment of property. False registrations have been made amongst the labouring classes as to the place of death, to gain interments in distant parishes at cheaper rates. Fictitious deaths have been registered to defraud burial societies, and the registrar’s certificate of such deaths have got in use by vagrants as a means of obtaining alms. In Manchester a woman having obtained and used one certificate of a fictitious death, soon after obtained another similar certificate, and in order to deter parties from visiting the house, she got the cause of death registered as “malignant fever.”
§ 189. On the continent, wherever the mortuary registers are well kept, and arrangements are made for the protection of the public health, the fact and time of death, and the identity of the deceased, is verified on the spot, by inspection of the body by a competent responsible officer of public health. Vide instance and effects at Geneva, stated in the General Sanitary Report, p. 174.
§ 190. It is proposed that the verification of the fact of death, and ascertaining its cause, by inquiry on the spot, should be confided to the officer proposed to be appointed as an officer of public health. The present local registrars might act as auxiliaries; the proposed appointment would be an additional security for the accuracy of the mortuary registration, and would improve that branch of the local machinery for registration.
Postponing the consideration of other collateral grounds for the appointment of a district officer of health, and to illustrate more clearly the course of alteration of the practice of interments, we will suppose the physician or officer of health brought by the proper notice to the habitation where the body lies in the presence of the survivors.
§ 191. In visiting the habitations of the labouring classes, he would be more careful to denote his office, profession, and condition, by his dress, and in his address, even than with other classes. On his arrival at the place of abode of a person of the working class, he would, after announcing his office and duty, inspect the body, and then require the name, age, occupation, and circumstances of the death of the deceased, enter them, and take the attestations of witnesses present. If the death occurred from any ordinary cause, he would, nevertheless, speak of the expediency of the early removal of the body to the chapel or house of reception, where it would be placed under proper care until the appointed time of the attendance of the relations and friends at the interment. The exercise of a summary power of removal in the case of rapid decomposition of the corpse, or in case of deaths from epidemic disease, for the protection of the living, is frequently suggested and claimed by neighbours. On inquiry in Manchester as to the periods during which the bodies of persons dying in the poorest districts were retained in the rooms where they died, the superintendent-registrar, Mr. Gardiner, observed, “they are not retained so long in these districts, because the houses to which the rooms belong are generally inhabited by several families, and those other families feel the inconvenience of the retention of the body amongst them, and they press for an early interment.” With females or survivors who cannot endure to part with the remains, the exercise of a friendly will would sometimes be necessary, and if properly exercised would generally be effectual. The name of an officer of public health would carry with it very general voluntary obedience to whatever he recommended, and in a majority of cases the prostrate survivors would be glad that he should order everything, and would feel it a relief if he were to do so. He would be prepared with a tariff of the prices of burial, and with instructions as to the regulations adopted for the public convenience, and for the more respectful performance of the ceremony of interment, and should be empowered and required, on the assent or application of the parties, to carry them out completely, as he might do with very little inconvenience or expenditure of time. He might be empowered to take such a course as this. Speaking to the widow or survivor of the lowest class, he might say—
“The inspectors of public health have been empowered to regulate the practice and the charges for interment, and to contract for and on behalf of the public to ensure the means of burial in a proper and respectful manner for the highest, as well as for the most humble classes. Formerly, the charge for the funeral of a person of the condition in life of your husband was four or five pounds, but by the new regulations, an equally respectable interment is secured to you for little more than half the amount. You are, nevertheless, at liberty to obtain the means of burial from any private undertaker. You may also, if you prefer it, have burial in any private cemetery, or elsewhere.”
§ 192. It is anticipated that, except on private canvass, and that only for a time, interment under the auspices of a public officer would be preferred in the great majority of cases, if the business were conducted with moderate care, in a manner really satisfactory, and if the minor but really important conveniences of all classes were duly consulted. For example, one frequent cause of the delay of interments amongst the poorer classes in crowded districts, is the delay of notification of deaths to distant relatives and friends, whose attendance may be required. More than one-half of the poor cannot write, and many of all classes who can write are unable to collect their thoughts even for a simple announcement of the event. The poorer classes generally get some one to write for them; and the regular payment for each letter is fourpence and a glass of liquor, or sixpence, exclusive of paper and postage. In the charges for funerals of the labouring classes in Scotland, five shillings is set down as the item of expense of letters of notification of the death of an artisan, and fifteen shillings for the notifications of the deaths of persons of the middle ranks of life. Under practicable regulations, such notifications might be prepared in a manner suitable to persons of every condition, at the rate of threepence per letter, or at one-half the ordinary rate of payment, paper, and envelope, and postage stamp included. The service might be rendered at an expense of a few minutes’ time to the officer in taking down a list of the names and addresses of the persons to be sent to. This list he would on his return to his office, hand to a clerk, by whom they would be immediately prepared and despatched in proper and well considered form. The Inspector might, therefore, add—
“If you will give me the names and addresses of those relatives and friends who may be desired to attend the funeral, I will cause notice of the time and places of attendance to be sent to them. Amongst the highest classes it is now the practice to diminish the number of followers to the grave, and to commit that duty only to a few; and it is desirable, for the sake of preventing unnecessary expense, that too many should not be invited. All the friends of the deceased who attend at the national cemetery will have an opportunity of joining in with the procession. Besides, the requests to attend, I can also, if you wish it, and will give me the names and addresses, cause notifications of the fact of the death to be sent to any persons in any part of the country.”
In the cases of illness amongst the survivors, or of a death from epidemic disease, indicating an infected atmosphere, he might add—