MEDICO-LEGAL WORK OF CIVIL SURGEONS. late

Of

there

has

been

good

deal of

the Indian

Medical

a

correspondence regarding Service, special reference being

made to the

duties which the medical officers this

country

draw.

perform in they

and the handsome salaries

In this connection it might be useful to some of the duties which

draw attention to

called upon to perform. We propose first of all to deal with certain of the medico-

they

legal time in

are

duties of

system

a

Civil

Surgeon.

These at

one

particularly onerous, but changes and the demands of a more complex

were not

434

INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.

form of government have, as in other departments, made itself felt in this branch of State

distances

medicine.

tended.

Within recent years the amount of medico-legal work has greatly increased, and the orders on the subject are much more stringent than

formerly. The result of this is that in many districts bodies are sent into head-quarter stations to be examined by the Civil Surgeon

l^ersonally

instead of

mined at the medical

subordinates.

100

previously,

exa-

of sub-divisions

Hence bodies

by not

are

sent in from distances of 40 to

unfrequently even

being,

head-quarters

as

miles,

and

days often elapse after

death

[Nov.

with the examination of bodies sent in from Such

beyond securing the viscera for analyses for poison, it is absolutely impossible to tell the cause of death

unless

it

be due to broken bones.

Justice under these circumstances must often fail. Nor is this work without its

dangers.

this work unnecessarily exposes the patients of the Civil Surgeon in the station and in the The Civil

composition has

to render

families in the station; and it is

No

canons

the

autopsy

become

so

advanced

most loathsome

as

duty.

com-

We will

let pass those personal risks which the Civil Surgeon incurs in making these autopsies, but we would draw attention to the dangers to which

Civil

a

long

the purpose for which it is inbodies are so decomposed that

serves

occurred before an examination can be made. When that examination is made dehas

1895.

Hospital.

Surgeon's duty

is

to attend to the civilians and their wives and

against

all the

of medical science that delicate ladies and

parison can be made with similar work in children should be attended, or patients operated England, Germany or other European countries. upon by a medical man who on the same day has There, in the majority of cases, the bodies are been examining a decomposed body. That these fresh, while here it is exceptional for them to be risks are reduced to a minimum by the extreme not decomposed. The conditions are totally care and precautions taken by the Civil Surgeon different, and the rapid decomposition and its goes without saying. But we are of opinion that effects which take place on a dead body in an the Government has a duty to the living as Indian climate are not seen in Europe, and it is well as to the dead, and that a system which is certain and other auto endanger the life of a lady in childthat calculated German, English quite thorities have no conception of the appearances birth, or of other patients who require their presented by a body which has been subjected wounds to be examined or attended to, requires If the Government are to an Indian climate, and which, for the purpose to be speedily changed. of medico-legal examination, has been sent into of opinion that it is necessary to insist on an head-quarters, carried on a light stretcher on the elaborate system of medical jurisprudence, the shoulders of bearers.

Bapid decomposition

not

only swells up the cellular tissue of the body, distorting, and misshaping every part, and rendering the opening and examination of the body a process, but produces such changes on the tissues as to obliterate the signs which are depended on for information in a fresh body. The

sickening body with

is in such

a

with

state

as

to be sometimes alive

of it

remedies lie in their other elaborate

own

system

hands, but like every costly. It is neces-

it is

sary for them to appoint medical officers qualified to perform medico-legal work in various selected

portions

of

districts, such as the headquarters of sub-divisions and outlying dispensaries, to whom bodies can be sent within a reasonable distance and in

condition.

a

compaiatively fresh

only portions remaining ; There is another point in this connection to unfrequently the bowels protruding, these having burst through their natural bounds which it is desirable to draw attention. Most by the pressure to which they are subjected by people would suppose that when Government gases of decomposition, and often the brain is insist on their medical officers performing such found to be a stinking fluid. The work undoubt- loathsome duties that they would provide thein edly is without parallel, the most loathsome with accommodation which would ensure the duty that falls to a European in this country. least amount of danger and discomfort, and at the same time provide all the necessary appliances. Can For this disgusting work there is no special pay. it be believed that the so-called mortuary usually It is a duty assigned to the Civil Surgeon in consists of an ordinary hut with mud-walls and order that there shall be available to Government an in independent expert witness judicial cases. mud floor containing generally a dilapidated 1 It is questionable, however, whether the system wooden table and no other appliances. Kecently now in practice of the Civil an burdening Surgeon attempt has been made to remedy this, and in maggots

it has not

O

'

Nov.

1895.]

few

places

a

MEDICAL NEWS. better mortuaries have been

ed. We have

specting to

one

provid-

had the

opportunity of inof these mortuaries, built according lately

what is termed

standard

a

plan

and

we

find it to be a brick-building surrounded by a low mud-wall and having an ordinary tiled roof, with

no

verandahs

wind

or

rain.

its interior

or

other

protection from

sun,

The

building, which measures in 10'x 14/x 12', has only sufficient

space to enable the examiner to walk round the table on which the body is laid, but does not permit of a writing table being placed in such a

position

to allow of the medical officer to report. The plan in fact appears

as

write

his

to

to be

us

entirely

unsuited for its purpose,

and

being too small, giving no protection against the sun or weather, and rendering the performance of the 'post-mortem a task of danger and difficulty.

435

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