154 TRUTH, PATHOLOGY, AND PUBLIC. 



it is to be frankly admitted with satisfaction that, 

 in this, Scotland is far ahead of some other parts 

 of the British Isles. I doubt, however, if there is 

 anything like a proper conception of the fearful 

 way in which the public suffers when the duty in 

 question is neglected by medical men. 



The public has to learn that an unskilful practi- 

 tioner is simply a waster of human life, and that 

 the public itself is but a bad judge of the waste of 

 its own life which may take place. The popular 

 prejudice against a custom thousands of years old 

 in royal families is the cause of an enormous annual 

 slaughter among all ranks, not the less real because 

 it is impossible to compute. 



It may be further mentioned, that it is at least 

 supposed that the government statistics, made at 

 considerable expense, of the causes of mortality, 

 are of some use ; yet it is an obvious fact, of which 

 I have had abundant experience, that the returns 

 which medical men have, under compulsion, rilled 

 up, stating causes of death, are in large part utterly 

 worthless, not from any wilful dereliction of duty 

 on the part of members of the profession, but 

 because information is asked which they are not 

 in a position to give. The schedules sent out by 

 the registrar for certification of cause of death 

 ought to demand whether or not a post-mortem 



