434 The Public Health. [ July, 
the crude mass of legislation of which they have been guilty for the 
last twenty-five years has been of any good at all; whether it has 
not “tended to defeat, in whole or in part,” the object it has had 
in view. The memorial then speaks in detail of the deficiencies of 
certain departments of state action in relation to health matters, 
and begins with registration. It deprecates the present imperfect 
system of registering births and deaths, and speaks of the absence 
of any registration of still-births and disease. The next subject 
alluded to is the present imperfect method of working medico-legal 
inquiries, requirmg the coroner to employ inefficient medical 
witnesses, and refusing him the aid of efficient and experienced 
experts in his inquiries, and thereby encouraging secret murders, 
especially poisoning. The memorial also speaks of the present 
system of dealing with medical evidence in courts of law as such 
that it “altogether prevents the discovery of truth, discredits 
scientific medicine, and is a fruitful source of perplexity and mis- 
conception to bench, bar, and jury.” 
The memorial then refers to the fact that in many of the large 
towns of the kingdom the death-rate is steadily increasing, and that, 
in spite of all our sanitary legislation, few towns have taken advan- 
tage of it; that in scarcely any of them have medical officers of 
health been appointed at all. It also draws attention to the fact 
that the amount actually disbursed under the present disjointed and 
very inefficient system would, if otherwise distributed—the dis- 
tricts and many of the duties being consolidated—go far to maintain 
a sufficient staff of specially trained and highly qualified district 
scientific officers with inspectorial functions. The memorial con- 
cludes :— 
“For all these reasons, and for others set forth in the accompany- 
ing ‘memorandum’ (drawn up by Dr. Rumsey, and approved by the 
jomt committee), we ask for a thorough, impartial, and compre- 
hensive inquiry, by a royal commission, having power to visit, or to 
send sub-commissioners to visit, the large towns, and other districts 
of the country, to obtain information and evidence, and to report 
on :— 
“1, The manner in which the cases and causes of sickness and 
of death are and should be inquired into and recorded in the United 
Kingdom. 
“2, The manner in which coroners’ inquests and other medico- 
legal inquiries are and ought to be conducted, having reference par- 
ticularly to the methods of taking scientific evidence. 
“3. The operation and administration of sanitary laws, with 
special reference to the manner in which scientific and medical 
advice and aid in the prevention of disease are and should be 
afforded ; and also with special reference to the extent of the areas 
or districts most convenient for sanitary and medico-legal purposes. 
