The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-10-27
WAITING FOR THE CORONER.

A false impression prevails that
when dead body is found, it must
not be moved, until the coroner has
viewed it. AS the question was raised
in the case Of William Brewer, found
dead at Irondale last Saturday, the
following article on the subject from
the Philadelphia Press of Tuesday is
timely. In answer to the question as
10 whether a dead body found on a
railroad track could be removed be-
fore the coroner came, it says:
As a general thing the safest course
for the discoverer of dead body is to
leave it untouched until other witness
es have seen it, and, where convenient,
until the Coroner appears. The reas-
on of this is obvious. The position
and condition in which body is found
shed light on the circumstances attend.
ing his death, and it is important that
this evidence should not be destroyed
or rendered less certain by the hasty
action of the first finder. Moreover,
ii is always possible that the onicious
meddler with the body of man who
has been killed may raise against him.
self an embarrassing presumption that
he had something to do with his death.
1t is both wisdom and prudence, there.
fore, for the discoverer of a dead body
to disturb it as little as possible until
others, and, if possible, the represen-
tative of the law, shall have seen it as
it originally revealed itself.
To this common-sense rule there
are many exceptions. If the body
discovered near Fallsington was lying
on the railroad track, no rational per
son, however ignorant, would maintain
that it should have been left there to
be crushed and mangled by succeeding
trains, instead of being removed from
the rails. Moreover, it is not always
certain that life is extinct when body,
apparently dead, is first discovered,
and by leaving the body untouched
while waiting for the Coroner the op-
portunlty to resuscitate it may be lost.
We know case where a son found
his fathers body in a stream of water.
With filial energy he secured the body,
fastened rope around it which he Sc
cured to tree, and then in obedience
to the superstition that the Coroner
must view the body before 1t is re-
moved from its original environment
he waited and watched for hours his
fathers floating body until the Coro
ner arrived. Ii there was life in the
body when discovered it had fled be.
fore the Coroner could pass judgment
upon it. In the same spirit the crew
OF tugboat which plies in the Della
ware recently hauled through the wat
er to the wharf young woman still
living who had jumped into the river
from passing steamboat. The boats
crew thought that she was dead, and
that they had no right to take her
body from the water until authorized
by the Coroner, and because their
brains were charged with this ancient
piece OF misinformaton the young
woman was drowned.
Our public schools teach many
things but it would be well if in some
way information were given to the
rising generation that when a supposed
dead body is discovered it is not nee
essary to assume that the body is Ger,
tainly dead Or to outrage all human
instincts and natural feeling by leaving
the body exposed and subject to furth
er injury until the Coroner appears or
the scene. The functionary is charged
with the duty Of inquiring into case:
OF sudden death, but until he arrive.
1t Is not necessary that the bystander'
should be stricken with paralysis o.
refuse to act with ordinary common
sense.