Professors of " Science ' 



He deals in the awful traffic of life and 

 death, and when a human being dies under 

 the knife, his scientific idea of accuracy of 

 statement finds its fulfilment in a report to 

 Somerset House that the patient died of 

 " anaesthetics." I make no suggestions that 

 every operation performed was not necessary 

 in the opinion of the operator, and was 

 not executed with consummate skill and 

 accompanied by every possible safeguard, 

 but that accuracy of statement which alone 

 satisfies unscientific persons is not present in 

 a return to the Registrar-General which 

 classifies a death, undoubtedly due to the 

 operation, either to the anaesthetic employed, 

 or to the disease from which the patient is 

 suffering. The Registrar General himself is 

 of course blameless in the matter, he can 

 but make his returns in accordance with the 

 certificates he receives ; he is not concerned 

 with their accuracy. But he made in the 

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