Verdicts of coroners' juries : the case of the late Mr. Cordwell / by P.F. Curie.

  • Curie, Paul Francis, 1799-1853.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Verdicts of coroners' juries : the case of the late Mr. Cordwell / by P.F. Curie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    but Coroners have nothing to do with the trial of any question; their function being merely to institute a preliminary inquiry— which must necessarily take place on ex-parte evidence. Even in criminal courts, where every precaution is taken for the full development of all the facts on both sides, and which are pre- sided over by men against whom a charge of partiality would at once prove fatal, the most singular results are sometimes arrived at. On the York Circuit, for instance, only three weeks back, one John Stavenden was charged with firing at a Mrs. Stott, when, after half-an-hour’s deliberation, “ to the astonishment of nearly every one in court,” the foreman declared, “ we believe the prisoner fired the gun, but we nevertheless find him not guilty ” —a mode of acquittal which quite takes the old verdict of “not guilty, but we advise him never to do it again,” out of the region of romance. If then, under the most favourable circumstances, we sometimes find verdicts of this kind recorded, what may we not expect when juries take upon themselves to pass judgment from ex-parte evidence, on a case involving the nicest points of scientific discussion ? Of course it is greatly in the power of the Coroner to prevent them from falling into such absurdities as those which have been exposed by the Spectator—but it is not at all times possible for him to do so ; and if he happens to be of the Alderman Cute school, fond of notoriety and eager to pur- chase it by pandering to popular prejudices, he is hardly likely to make the attempt. In the present instance, however, the circumstance of the party attacked being a foreigner and a rival practitioner, might certainly have been expected to induce a decent assumption of courtesy and impartiality. “ Looking at all the facts of the case, we are wholly at a loss to understand the motives for calling the inquest at all. It is true that Dr. Curie is understood to recognize the homoeopathic sys- tem of medicine, and that the Lancet has always been bitterly opposed to it—but then this circumstance would surely make Mr. Wakley, in his capacity as Coroner, more scrupulous in his conduct towards its disciples, since, in that capacity, he has nothing to do with the relative merits of conflicting systems, but E ,2