MISCELLANEA 205 



The Coroner and a Biological Fact. 



A CUTTING from an evening newspaper was sent to us some time 

 ago by a subscriber, in which appeared a report of an inquest held 

 at Islington. 



A six-weeks-old baby had died from natural causes " due to 

 heart and lung trouble." The medical man who conducted the 

 post-mortem, and knew the family, said that the father of the 

 child was not a healthy man, and that the mother was physically 

 weak. In his opinion " they ought not to have had children at 

 all." These two people had begotten fifteen children and only 

 three were alive. 



The Coroner, Mr. Danford Thomas, said " there had been a 

 discussion in medical circles with reference to the children of unfit 

 parents, and he considered that such cases ought to be gone into." 

 He added : " It is a disgraceful thing to have fifteen children and 

 twelve die. It is high time something was done, I am quite 

 sure." 



Now some of these remarks will, we feel certain, commend 

 themselves to everyone who loves humanity well enough to 

 desire to see it healthy and vigorous. We shall all endorse the 

 remark that it is disgraceful for such people to have fifteen chil- 

 dren. But personally we fail to see the disgrace in the natural 

 death of twelve of them. There is much to be said for the 

 ethics of those so-called benighted and heathen tribes in Central 

 Africa, described by Mr. E. Torday in another part of this 

 Journal. 



With regard " to the discussion in medical circles " alluded to 

 by the Coroner, two facts need emphasizing. First : the rank and 

 file of the medical profession, namely, the general practitioners, 

 who daily see the consequences of human recklessness and folly, are, 

 we believe, dead against the modern sentiment which would delibe- 

 rately save these defective races. Second : there is a small mino- 

 rity of medical men who for some reason or another, prefer official 

 posts to general practice. These are the men who initiate dis- 

 cussions and start societies for the " Ethical Salvation of Unethical 

 Races." It is with them we find all sorts of panaceas more or less 

 plausibly advocated for the amelioration and prevention of 

 infantile mortality, and for the employment of other methods 

 of cheating a beneficient Nature. And however varied may be 

 the panaceas proposed there is a remarkable uniformity and 

 universality in one proposition which runs throughout them all 

 as a conspicuous and dominant thread. It never fails to show 

 itself. Always it is proposed that there shall be an increase of salaried 

 medical officials. In the long run such a policy is short-sighted 

 a,nd must inevitably lower the status and endanger the best 



