The Sun. — 1836-03-02 (London, England)

REMUNERATION TO MEDICAL MEN AT INQUESTS. Mr. WILK S presented a petition from a medical gentleman named Barker, in favour of the Bill which was that night to be brought in by the Hon. Member for Finsbury (Mr. Wakley), for granting compensation to medical men attending as witnesses on Coroner's Inquests. The petitioner stated that on the 22d of July, 1834, he made a post mortem examination of the body of a person supposed to have been murdered by the administration of poison. The Coroner postponed the inquest until the next day, in order to give time for the petitioner to analyse the contents of the stomach— an operation which occupied him for several hours each day for several days. The Jury had expressed their gratitude to him for the trouble he had had and the skill he had exercised on the occasion, and recommended the parish officers to compensate him for his loss of time. That ten guineas would have been scarcely sufficient- to remunerate him, but that he was willing to accept of three guineas, and that even this moderate sum the parish officers said they had no power to give. The petitioner therefore thought that the Legislature ought to interfere in a case of such public importance. Sir J. R. REID presented a petition to the same effect from a place in the county of Surrey. Mr. C. BARCLAY presented a petition of the same nature from Dorking. Mr. HARVEY presented a similar petition, signed by 826 members of the medical profession in this metropolis, amongst whom were Sir H. Halford, President of the College of Physicians ; Mr. Andrews, President of the College of Surgeons ; and Sir A. Cooper and Sir A. Carlisle, Vice-Presidents. He also presented another petition, signed by 36 professional men of the borough of Southwark. Mr. WAK LE Y, in rising to ask leave of the House to bring in a Bill for granting compensation to medical men attending as witnesses at Coroners' inquests, said that medical men attended professionally at inquests, and not as mere casual persons wbo might have chanced to witness an accident by which the loss of life was caused. The duty, too, of medical witnesses on those occasions was of a most important nature, and often attended with great danger to themselves, as they were frequently obliged to occupy twelve, and not unfrequently fourteen hours in a post mortem examination ; and vet after all this trouble, hazard, and loss of time, the Coroner had no power to award any compensation. Within a very short period several lives hac' been lost tinder circumstances which could only be explained by men acquainted with medical science. He alluded to those unfortunate persons who had been destroyed by the ;use of quack medicines, and he lamented to say that never in the history of this country was quacking so general or successful as it was at present, chiefly owing to the encouragement it received by advertisements in newspapers. He thought it was the duty of the Government to interfere, and he hoped they would interfere to prevent at least the circulation of those quack medicines under the sanction of a Government stamp. At an inquest lately held, arising out of the use of those medicines, the ends of justice would have been defeated if the attendance of medical men could not have been procured. He should conclude by moving for