Transcribed from the [1852] Samuel Daynes edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Public domain book cover] OBSERVATIONS ON CORONERS, BY WILLIAM HEWITT, SURGEON, NORTH WALSHAM, Author of an Essay on the Encroachments of the German Ocean, with a design to arrest its further depredations. * * * * * “_Unius ætatis sunt quæ fortiter flunt_, _quæ_ _pro utilitate scribuntur æterna_.” * * * * * PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY SAMUEL DAYNES, SAINT STEPHEN’S STREET, NORWICH; SOLD BY JOHN CHURCHILL, MEDICAL BOOKSELLER, PRINCES’ ST., SOHO, LONDON; OURY AND CO., LONDON ST., NORWICH; JOHN MOWER, NORTH WALSHAM, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. Entered at Stationers’ Hall. * * * * * _To the Right Honourable The Secretary of State_, _for the Home Department_. SIR, The importance of the subject, I humbly anticipate will be sufficient excuse for the liberty I have taken, in dedicating to you the result of my experience connected with Coroners’ Inquests. The instances narrated with reference to apparent delinquencies, in non-medical Coroners, contained in the following pages, occurred in my immediate neighbourhood, and may be believed, as resting on the brow of truth. Yet I most heartily coincide in acknowledging the integrity and worth, of Gentlemen pursuing vocations, for which they have alone been amply educated; and it is only when they assume a position, or accept office to execute duties they are incompetent to perform, as is frequently observed, that I deem it my duty to wield my pen against such appointments: not less for the sake of humanity, than for the dignity, and I might add, the disregarded importance of the medical profession, to which I have the honor to belong. I am, Sir, Your very humble and obedient Servant, The AUTHOR. OBSERVATIONS ON CORONERS. “If there’s a hole in a’your coats, I rede you tent it: A Chield’s amang you, taking notes, And, faith, he’ll prent it.”