§ SIR WILLIAM PRIESTLEY (Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether, in cases in which post-mortem examinations are made by order of the Procurator-Fiscal, medical men who have had charge I of a patient prior to death are allowed to be present at the examination, or whether the practice throughout Scotland in regard to granting or refusing permission is not uniform; whether persons suspected of having caused the death by criminal or other means are granted facilities for being medically represented at the examination; whether intimation is given to interested persons in time to allow their making application for representation to the right quarter: and if lie will state what is the right quarter where such application should be made.
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. A. G. MURRAY,) ButeshireNo person except the medical men instructed to conduct the autopsy is allowed to be present, except with the consent of Crown counsel, or on the order of the sheriff. Crown counsel may, in their discretion, sanction the presence of a medical man who has attended the case or in the interests of the accused; but this is done on condition that he is to be present merely as an onlooker, and is not to interfere in any way with the Crown examination. No formal intimation is given that an autopsy is to be held, but in all eases where any person is in custody on suspicion of causing death an autopsy is made as a matter of course, so that an accused person, or his advisers, 745 Cannot be in doubt as to the necessity making immediate application for permission to send a medical man to witness the autopsy if they so desire it. The quarter to which application should be made is the Procurator-Fiscal, whose duly it is in all cases of urgency to communicate by telegraph with the Grown Agent for the, instructions of Grown counsel. If an independent post-mortem examination is desired, it can he made after the Crown examination.