The Sun. — 1864-01-02 (London, England)

WILHELM. " Countersigned by all the Ministers except Herr Von Itzenplitz. " Berlin, Dec. 27, 1863."  The Registration of Deaths as a Measure of  Police.  (From the Lancet.)  The registration of deaths as a measure of police has perhaps been too little heeded, yet it is probable that the importance of registration might best be brought home to the majority of the public in this aspect. It is not given to every one to comprehend the mysteriee and utilities of vital statistics; and questions of succession, in which a registration of death may play an important part, have but a limited interest. Every one, however, has an interest in shielding himself as best he may from mur der or from being needlessly killed ; and there can be little doubt that a careful registration of deaths is one of the best safeguards of a community from foul or careless dealing with life. On the other hand, a careless registration is one of the greatest encouragements to secret murder, or to indifference in occupations dangerous to life. Dr. Buchanan, in his report on the health of St. Giles's, furnishes an important illustration of the scandalous facility with which certificates of death may be obtained in this country, and of certain gravo imperfections existing in the system of registration of deaths. No less than 45 deaths, it.appears, were registered in St. Giles's in 1862, and the corpse in each case interred, about which there ought to have been an inquiry. In 36 of these instances there was no medical certificate of the cause of death. In 11 of the 36 cases this omission is stated to have occurred through the absence of any medical attendant in the fatal illness. In the other 25 cases it is simply recorded that the alleged cause of death was not certified. In two of the cases, at least, there was prima facie ground for suspecting poison. Again, the deaths of no fewer than 20 infants under a week old were registered as occurring from ".premature birth," " convulsions," and so forth, without a particle of medical evidence of the cause. Dr. Buchanan also mentions the case of a domestic servant dying and being buried without either the medical or registrar's certificate being forthcoming. Again, nine persons were certified in 1862 by medical men to have died from an " unknown cause." In each of these cases a judicial investigation ought to have been instituted. Every one of these deaths was, however, registered, a certificate for burial given, and the body interred,  So great a degree of negligence in the registration of deaths, opening out as it does facilities to— nay, even encouraging—foul or careless dealing with life, demands the attention of the Legislature. Now, of every one of the cases which he records Dr. Buchanan says, " The law should have provided for information being sent to the coroner, and none of the bodies should have been buried without his warrant. Whenever a registrar receives information of a death concerning the cause of vvhicl. there is no medical certificate, or receives a medicai certificate in which the cause of death is not satisfactorily specified, and generally in all cases of doubt it ought to be his function to communicate with the coroner. Inquiry is needed in such cases, not necessarily for the purpose of criminating anybody, but with the object of getting at the real cause of such deaths. By the coroner's inquiry, not only is the moral influence exercised to restrain crime, and in many cases are groundless suspicions allayed, but important information is obtained and diffused, that leads to the prevention in other instances of disease, of violence, and death." We fully concur in these observations.