The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-07-17
DIR. GARWOOD Is WRATH.
City and County Hospital People
Have Offended Him.
They Held an Autopsy Over a Body Which
Should Have Bsen Taken to the Coroners
Office = An Inquest Will Be Held.

War has been declared by the Coroner's
Office against the physicians of the City and
County Hospital.
The casus beli lies upon his back In
coffin at the Morgue. His name is supposed
| TO be James DAILY and his past Is supposed
to have been lurid and somewhat tumult-
uons.
Edwin Bennett a Waterman, who lives at
421 Greenwich street, was passing the
Mills building at 12:45 o'clock on the morn
Ing of July IL. when he heard noise. which
be thought was caused by the falling of a
stone or other heavy body from the first
floor of the huge building into the Gear.
de entered the building, and lantern in
hand, made an investigation. but found
nothing. At :l5 o'clock he heard groans
Issuing from the cellar and found an old
man lying at the base of a little pile of rub
bush, composed of sticks, bricks and mortar.
bottle half full of what the Waterman
described as pretty tough whisky" lay at
the feet OF the aged and rather dilepidated
specimen Of the genus homo.
ARoUsING THE OLD MAN.
The Waterman aroused the old man with
| great difficulty and came to the conclusion
that he was dealing with a jig in an ad-
vanced stage OF decomposition. The old
! man mOaned and groaned and pressed his
| stomach He was vehemently urged 10 stir
| himself and assume the vertical, but he was
| unable TO obey the officers behests. Beu-
nett summoned office rs Wright and Walsh,
| who landed the supposed inebriate on the
| sidewalk, and they, at 7:15 O'clock, brought
| a patrol wagon to their assistance. DAILY
| was taken to ths Receiving Hospital, where
| the surgeons found that several of his ribs
| were broken, that his lungs had been pene-
trated BY The spllntere1 bones and that lie
was IN need OF immediate attention.
| DAILY said that he lived at the What Cheer
| House, but that he also had home In Ala
| media. He was taken on the same day 10
| the City and County Hospital, where he
| told Visiting Surgeon Mclean that he had
| fallen into cellar downtown while drunk
| DIR. Mclean attended Daily, and observed
| that no one came to visit him. On the 18th
| the patient died.
AN AUTOPSY HELD.
Ii was decided To hold an autopsy on the
remains, and that decision is the basis OF
| the impending conflict between the Coroner
| Coroner to take charge of all such cases. but
| the Coroner was not notified. The autopsy
Was held, and the physicians who examined
| Days interior declared that his death had
been caused by lacerated lungs and broken
! ribs. A certificate to that effect was issued
| by DIR. Mclean. aud the body was given to
! the city undertaken, who made ready for its
| sepulture in the PotteT's Field.
The Board Of Health, to whom the under
| taker applied yesterday for permission TO
| bury the body. declined to accept the GER
| tticate OF the city and county physician on
| the ground that such a certificate could
| issue from no one but the Coroner. Then
the body. which is rapidly decomposirg.
was taken to the Morgue. The Coroner
will hold an inquest on the remains today
DR.. Mclean Is now in Monterey and his
version of the affair could not, therefore. be
obtained.
DAILY was 81 years old and a native of Ire
land. His name does not appear upon the
-. J..