§ MR. BLAKEasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the statement be correct which appeared in the Dublin "Freeman's Journal" of the 11th instant, that:—
At a meeting of the governors of the Limerick Lunatic Asylum, a letter was read from the Lord Lieutenant forbidding in all cases post-mortem examinations of lunatic patients, even when ordered by coroners at inquests;and, if so, if he will be good enough to state the reason why His Excellency has issued such an order; if similar orders have been addressed to the governors of other district asylums in Ireland; and, if for the future at the Limerick Asylum, and any other asylum to which the foregoing has been issued, no post-mortem examinations can take place, no matter from what cause a lunatic patient may appear to have died, whether from violence or causes other than natural, or how necessary it maybe to have such an examination in the opinion of the coroner, the jury, or the relatives of the deceased?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, the newspaper paragraph referred to in the Question of my hon. Friend states only a part of the case, and is therefore misleading. What His Excellency has expressed his disapproval of is, not the holding of a post-mortem examination, but the conducting of such examination by the resident medical superintendent of the asylum in which the patient lived previous to his death. The ground of the objection is, that it is quite conceivable that a case might arise in which the chief officer of an asylum might be, to some extent, blameable for the death of a patient; and it therefore appears desirable that whenever a post-mortem examination is considered necessary, it should be conducted by an independent medical authority.