The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-08
WILL THE COUNTY PAY IT?
The Hover Post MOTtem Bills Thought
10 be TOO Heavy.

The Finance Committee Refers Them
to the Board for Discussion and Ac-
tion-one of the Commissioners
Thinks the Law Allows Only $50 for
Post Mortems- Solicitor General
Fraser Does not Know What He is
Going to do About it.
The question has been raised whether
the county commissioners will pay the
bills sent in by the doctors who made the
post norton examination of Lemuel
Hover's body, and as it appeared yester-
day afternoon there is pretty sure to be
fight over the matter when it comes up
before the commissioners tomorrow
IT will be remembered that under the
instructions from acting Coroner Sheftal,
Drs. B. f. Sheftall and B. S. Purse were
to bill the county for their work, which
they did. each asking 500 for his part in
the autopsy.
Yesterday afternoon the finance com
mittee of the county commissioners held
q meeting, and it is understood that the
bills brought before it for the autopsy
met with quite an adverse discussion,
though the committee refused to act out
right either recommending that it be
paid or not be paid, preferring to leave
the matter to a discussion before the en-
tire board. Accordingly it referred the
matter to the board, which will consider
it tomorrow.
OPPOSED TO PAYING 1T.
One of the board did not hesitate to say
fhat rTpdaT tho fipe11Tr1 G stances and ppnGlf-
ering everything in connection with the
examination, he did not think the bills
Should be paid.
He did not mean that the doctors
should be paid nothing for their work,
but that they had charged more than the
county was allowed by law to pay for
such work He referred to the section of
the code upon post norton examinations
which provides that the expenses in con-
nection with such an operation shall not
be more than 500. For this reason he did
not think the bills could be paid.
''There are laws, too he said" which
require such an examination TO be made
in the presence of witnesses who can tes-
tify as to the cleanliness of the instru-
ments used, which should be washed in
distilled water, as should also the hands
of the doctor who makes the examination.
Then, too, the body is said to have had
some poisonous fluid injected into it in
the process Of embalming, which would
be disadvantageous to the discovery Of
any poison in the stomach, did it exist.
FOR THE CORONER TO SAY.
81 believe that the coroner is the per
son to determine whether there is any
thing suspicious in the manner of a death,
and if so believed an examination should
be held at once. In New York it is the
law that when person dies
within twenty-four hours after being
taken sick, an inquest should be held, and
there is no donbt but that in all cases of
sudden death, in New York, Georgia or
anywhere else, an inquest should be held
! do not see how such bills could be paid
under the law, and l do not think any
thing could be recovered on such claims
were they carried into court"
Solicitor eneral Fraser says that unless
he becomes satisfied from further evidence
that a chemical analysis of Hover's
stomach is necessary, he will not put the
county to the evtra expense of having one
made.
Since he returned hel has been looking
into the matter but has not yet de-
termined what action he will take if any.
He is still investigating and looking for
further evidence in the case and it will
probably be a day or two before he de-
cides what course to pursue.
He, too, was of the opinion that an in
quest should have been held at once. and
that the matter of post norton should
have been determined at that time by the
coroner.
The opinions as to what should be done
in the matter are various, but there is a
great deal of doubt as to whether there
was evidence enough of a substantial
kind to have warranted any examination
at all. In the meantime Hover's stom-
ach lies in statu quo