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MEDICINE AND THE LAW

Medical Witnesses under the New Procedure

WHEN the Rules Committee of the Supreme Courtdrew up new rules of procedure for certain classes oflitigation 1 it naturally did not overlook the running-down or collision cases which frequently require thepresence in court (sub peena) of the general practitioner,with all the delay, uncertainty, and annoyance whichsuch attendance implies. Under these rules the

judge may remit to a special referee the estimationof the extent and permanence of an injury allegedto have been caused by the negligence of a motor-driver. The referee, who will probably be a doctor,will make a report which both sides are entitled tosee, but need not accept, and which will be availablefor the assistance of the judge. As Mr. F. W. Beney Isuggested in a recent lecture to the Solicitors’ Managing Clerks’ Association, the referee may see fit to examine Ithe injured person in the presence of the doctors ofboth sides ; this should make it possible for all the ’,medical men to agree, and save the necessity for anyof them being called as a witness. If this power is

properly used, it should do away with most of themedical evidence in cases involving personal injury,and save medical men a great deal of time.

A Coroner’s Criticism ’

Anomalies which arise from the holding of inquestson deaths associated with anaesthesia have on morethan one past occasion aroused controversial opinionand the suspicion that all was not well with theseinquiries. It has become clear, moreover, that thevery necessity for inquiry is not acknowledged on thesame grounds by all coroners. That is in itself a stepin the right direction, for everyone in full possessionof the facts knows that in a large number of deathsassociated with anaesthesia there is no sense in holdingan inquiry at all. In these instances, commonlyfurnished by patients brought to hospital desperatelyill or terribly injured and given the one slender chanceof life by emergency operation, no question can arisein connexion with the surgeon and anaesthetistwhich can be profitably discussed by a coroner,still less by his jury. The cause of death is plain andis apart from the activities of surgeon and anaesthetist.There is no question of negligence, carelessness, ormalpraxis.Some coroners have quite fully realised these

occurrences and have acted accordingly, with a

laudable saving of time and of possible damage toreputation of the medical men concerned. Considera-tion of this last possibility is not always present inthe coroner’s mind. Looking, however, at his omni-potence in his own court, his freedom of speech andthe impossibility of due reply, the coroner should becareful to weigh his words. His is a court of inquiry.He should not make it appear to be one of arraign-ment. Above all we may surely demand that if acoroner airs his opinions on any special matters itshould be plain from those opinions that he is fullyconversant with recent knowledge and practice. At aninquiry recently conducted into the facts of a deathwhich occurred at the Evelina Hospital for Children,according to reports in the lay press, the coroner criti-cised the practice of allowing the laryngeal reflex tobe abolished by the anaesthetic during an operationfor removal of the tonsils, because of the danger ofentry of blood to the larynx. The coroner was

1 See THE LANCET, 1932, i., 996.

evidently unaware that the surgeon who removestonsils to-day takes precautions, by the mode ofanaesthetic administration, by the position of thepatient, or by the immediate control of any bleedingthat arises, to prevent blood from entering the airpassages. The complete deliberate removal of tonsilsas carried out to-day requires an absence of all gaggingand a perfectly immobile pharynx, and this impliesa degree of narcosis in which the laryngeal reflex isalways abolished. In the days when the tonsils wereremoved speedily a much lighter anaesthesia was allthat was needed or asked for from the anaesthetist.No doubt it was operations of this kind that thecoroner had in mind when he observed that he haddone the operation hundreds of times and never hadthe laryngeal reflex abolished. The advance of

knowledge with regard to this particular operationhas led to a complete instead of an incomplete removalof the offending tonsil. Complete removal of tonsilscannot be properly carried out without a degree of’narcosis that involves abolition of the laryngeal reflex,and unless anyone is prepared to denounce the modernoperation he-cannot fairly criticise the anaesthesia itinvolves. And before he denounces the modern opera-tion he would be well advised to do a little follow-upwork on his hundreds of patients and find out howmany of them have had to undergo a second operationfor removal of the portions of tonsil which he leftbehind.

A Maternity CaseAn action was tried at the Greenwich County Court

at the end of June, in which a married woman andher husband alleged negligence against a registerednurse and certified midwife who was the proprietressof a nursing home where, amongst others, maternitycases were received. In April, 1931, arrangements hadbeen made, on the advice of her medical attendant,for the married woman to enter the nursing homefor the expected birth of a child in October, a bookingfee of two guineas being paid. The defendant, ofwhose experience, personal care, and ability the

county court judge was satisfied, seems to have

thought it safe to be absent from the nursing homefor a long week-end at the beginning of October,having had no holiday since the previous April.She was mistaken. The patient was brought tothe home in the absence of the proprietress, anda child was born in circumstances which suggestedinattention. The nurse in charge had experience ofgeneral nursing, and had a special certificate from afever hospital, but was not a maternity nurse, nor acertified general-trained nurse. She did not sendfor the doctor, and, in the words of the county courtjudge, " she left the unfortunate plaintiff roamingabout the room by herself at the very time when thechild was born." The plaintiffs claimed damagesfor breach of contract as well as for negligence. Theysaid the proprietress of the home had undertaken togive personal attention to the case. The judge heldthat she had merely said,

" I always do my best to bepresent " ; her absence was therefore no breach ofcontract. But she had held herself out as carryingon maternity work amongst other cases, and she wasunder an absolute duty to leave some competentperson in charge who could deal with maternity cases.The patient was brought to the hospital at 2.30 A.M.,and the child was born at 6.30 A.M. In the judge’sopinion a competent nurse would have known thatbirth was near ; not being a certified midwife, thenurse in charge ought to have sent for the doctor,though the proprietress herself would not have neededto trouble the doctor at that hour. The defendant,said the judge, must bear the loss occasioned by the

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incompetency of the person whom she left in charge’On the question of damages, the judge observed thatthe patient was of a bright and cheerful disposition,and happily all was well in the end, but she wasentitled to something for the very serious mental

anguish she endured when her child was being bornin the circumstances described. He awarded ten

guineas damages. In a second action in which the

proprietress of the nursing home sued the patient’shusband for E24 lls. 3d. for professional servicesrendered to the patient, judgment was given for924 Os. 9d., with costs.

Dead Cats and DogsA man was fined 10s. at Sheffield last week for

throwing a dead cat into the canal. The solicitor forthe canal company told the court that the medicalofficer of health had frequently complained of thenuisance caused by the bodies of dead animals. Thecompany had had to pay extra wages for clearing thecanal of them. During the week ending June 18th, 29bodies of animals (including a pig) were taken fromthe canal; during one week last March as many as32 cats and dogs were taken out. The defendant’sexcuse was that he had nowhere else to throw thecat-a statement which shows that it is necessarynot only to prohibit the throwing of dead animalsinto rivers and canals, but also to educate the publicto use the facilities provided for disposal of refuse.There are probably plenty of people in Sheffield andelsewhere who think that the river or the canal isthe only place for dead dogs and cats, although ourpublic health enactments have for many generationsaimed at preventing nuisances and protecting sourcesof water-supply. In 1876 the Rivers Pollution Preven-tion Act prohibited the putting of putrid solid matterinto a stream ; 250 years previously, the New RiverCompany’s charter had forbidden the casting of

"dogs, cats or any cattle, carrion or any unwholesomeor unclean thing " into what was then already one ofLondon’s sources of water-supply. Indeed, as longago as the year 1388, an Act "for the punishmentof them which cause corruption near a city or greattown to corrupt the air " had recited that " so muchdung and filth of the garbage and entrails as well ofbeasts killed as of other corruptions be cast and putin ditches, rivers and other waters ... nigh unto diverscities... that the air there is greatly corrupt andinfect and many maladies and other diseases do dailyhappen." Yet the canals near our cities and greattowns are still receiving their half-dozen dead catsor dogs a day.

IRELAND

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) I

APPOINTMENTS BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES

BY the terms of the Local Authorities (Officersand Employees) Act, 1926, the Appointments Com-mission set up under the Act was given powerto recommend for appointment to an office undera local authority one person or, if they should thinkfit, two or more persons from whom the local authoritymight select. From the date of the establishmentof the Commission until a few months ago it was theunbroken practice to recommend only one personfor each appointment. The virtual appointment was,therefore, in the hands of the Appointments Com.mission. Soon after the coming into office of thepresent Government the personnel of the Corn-.

mission was changed, and recently the practice as torecommendations has also been changed. It is nowthe custom of the Appointments Commission tosend three names to the local authority in each case,the final choice to rest with the local authority.On the face of it this seems a proper enough pro-cedure. But, unfortunately, it tends to run counterto the intentions of the Act. The Act was basedon the conviction that local elective authorities werenot in their nature well fitted to estimate profesionalor technical qualifications, and, secondly, on theexperience that many local authorities made theirappointments on the grounds of family and politicalinfluence and personal favour. The increased powernow restored to local authorities is likely to lead to areturn to methods of choice which have nothing intheir favour. As regards medical appointmentsthe change is open to the further objection that itputs a stop to the policy of centralising the medicalservices, a policy the natural end of which wouldhave been a State Medical Service.

THE LATE DR. GRAHAMDr. James Graham, coroner for the city of Belfast,

died on June 15th, in his 80th year. Born at Board-mills, Co. Down, he was educated at the Queen’sCollege, Belfast, and took his M.D. degree in 1872. Hestarted practice in Belfast, where he soon became anoutstanding figure in the city. His first entry intopublic life dated from 1885, when he was electedchairman of the Lagan Pollution Committee, and in1888 he became an alderman of the corporation andwas elected chairman of the public health committee.It was during this period of his chairmanship that ascheme for the establishment of a municipal hospitalfor the treatment of infectious diseases, advocatedten years previously, was brought to completion,from which emerged the magnificent institutionwhich now occupies part of the old Batt estate ofPurdysburn, which was acquired by the corporationand which now also houses the municipal mentalhospital. He was elected president of the UlsterMedical Society in 1899.

In 1905, Dr. Graham was appointed coroner, andduring the years in which he filled the office he con-ducted innumerable inquiries with dignity and tact.He brought to bear an intimate knowledge of medicalscience which helped to solve many a knotty problem,and his urbanity, savoir faire, and good sense success-fully surmounted many difficulties. He could makeallowances for the frailties of human nature, and wheresome would have administered reproof or punishment,Dr. Graham often met the case with a few words ofkindly and helpful advice.

INDEX TO " THE LANCET," VOL. 1., 1932THE Index and Title-page to Vol. I., 1932, which

was completed with the issue of June 25th, is nowin preparation. A copy will be sent gratis to sub-scribers on receipt of a post-card addressed to theManager of THE LANCET, 7, Adam-street, Adelphi,London, W.C.2. Subscribers who have not alreadyindicated their desire to receive Indexes regularly aspublished should do so now.

EAST LONDON CHILDREN’S HospiTAL.—A lanternlecture on Surgeons of Other Lands was given to thenursing staff of this hospital by Prof. G. Grey Turneron July 13th. The lecturer was introduced by Prof. E. W.Hey Groves, and a vote of thanks was proposed by SirCuthbert Wallace and seconded by Mr. Warren Low.