Reprinted from the New York Medical Journal 
for April 29. 1893. 
A PROPOSED ACT TO AMEND THE 
CORONER'S SYSTEM OF NEW YORK CITY. 
At the meeting of the Section in Public Health, Legal Medicine, and 
Medical and Vital Statistics of the Academy of Medicine, held on March 
1st, a committee, consisting of Dr. Stephen Smith (chairman), Dr. 
John Winters Brannan, and Dr. F. H. Dillingham (secretary), was ap- 
pointed to make certain amendments to a bill introduced into the New 
York State Assembly by Mr. Kempner. This bill provided for the 
transfer of certain duties, now performed by the coroners of the city 
and county of New York, to the board of health of that city; but the 
committee found that certain of the provisions of the bill were uncon- 
stitutional, while there was insufficient detail regarding other matters 
essential to accomplish the desired end. The question was carefully 
considered and the committee made its report on April 19th, in the 
form of the amended bill given below. This report was unanimously 
adopted by the section, and it was presented to the academy at the 
general meeting held on April 20th, with the recommendation that it 
be received, ordered to be printed so as to be presented to the fellows 
of the academy for careful consideration, and transmitted to other local 
medical societies so that their co-operation might be asked for in order 
to accomplish the reform evidently demanded in the administration of 
the office. 
An Act to transfer certain Duties now performed by the Coroners 
of the City and County of New York to the Board of Health, and 
to define the Method of Procedure in Cases of Sudden or Violent 
Deaths. 
Copyright, 1893, by D. Appleton and CompaSt, 2 
THE CORONER'S SYSTEM OF NEW YORK CiT.Y. 
The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows : 
Section 1. In all cases in which a coroner of the city and county of 
New York, or a coroner's physician, was heretofore required by law to 
make a medical examination, and in all cases mentioned in section 
seven hundred and seventy-three of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 
the board of health of said city and county shall have complete juris- 
diction and authority. Said board, by one or more of its physicians, 
appointed as hereinafter provided, shall perform the duties and make 
the examinations required by said section, and shall proceed without 
the aid or assistance of jurors. Said physicians shall make duplicate 
reports of their examinations and all of their proceedings, stating 
therein the cause of injury or death, and file one copy with the board 
of health and the other with the district attorney of said city and 
county. 
Sec. 2. The board of health of said city and county of New York is 
hereby authorized to create a bureau to be known as the " Bureau of In- 
quest," and to appoint five competent physicians, to be known as " In- 
quest Physicians," who shall receive a salary not exceeding the sum of 
three thousand dollars each, and a clerk, to be known as the " Inquest 
Clerk," who shall keep a complete record of all inquests, and shall re- 
ceive a salary not exceeding the sum of two thousand dollars, such 
salaries to be appropriated by the Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment when fixing their provisional and final estimates for the board of 
health. 
Sec. 3. All the duties and jurisdiction heretofore vested in a coroner 
or the coroners of the city and county of New York, affecting civil ac- 
tions, proceedings and writs, and the service and execution thereof, shall 
be performed by and repose in the " collector of assessments and clerk 
of arrears " of said city and county. 
Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of any citizen in the city and county of 
New York, who may become aware of the death of a person who shall 
have died from criminal violence, or by a casualty, or suddenly when in 
apparent health, or when unattended by a physician, or in prison, or in 
any suspicious or unusual manner, to report such death forthwith to the 
Bureau of Inquest, or to any police officer, who shall notify the Bureau 
of Inquest without delay of such death ; and any person who shall will- 
fully neglect or refuse to report such death as above required shall, 
upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be pun- 
ished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or by a fine THE CORONER'S SYSTEM OF NEW YORK CITY. 
3 
not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprison- 
mc nt. 
Sec. 5. Any person in said city and county, except an inquest physi- 
cian, who shall willfully touch, remove, or disturb the body of any one 
who shall have died in the manner described in the last section, or who 
shall willfully touch, remove, or disturb the clothing, or any article upon 
or near such body, without a written order from an inquest physician, 
shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall 
be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or by 
a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by both such fine and im- 
prisonment. 
Sec. 6. Whenever information is given at the Bureau of Inquests of 
the Board of Health that there has been found, or is lying, within the 
jurisdiction of said board, the dead body of a person who is supposed 
to have come to his death by violence, an inquest physician shall forth- 
with repair to the place where such body lies and take charge of the 
same, and if on view thereof and personal inquiry into the cause and 
manner of the death, he deems a further examination necessary, he shall 
in the presence of two or more discreet persons, whose attendance he 
may compel by subpoena if necessary, make an autopsy, and then and 
there reduce to writing every fact and circumstance tending to show the 
condition of the body, and cause and manner of death, together with the 
names and addresses of said witnesses, which record he shall subscribe. 
Before making such autopsy, he shall call the attention of said witnesses 
to the position and appearance of the body. 
Sec. 7. If upon such view, personal inquiry, or autopsy, he shall be 
of opinion that the death was caused by violence, he shall at once notify 
one of the coroners of the city and county of New York, and shall file 
a duly attested copy of the record of his examination and autopsy in the 
office of said coroners, in addition to the reports made in accordance 
with section first of this act. The coroner shall thereupon hold an in- 
quest which shall consist of the testimony of the inquest physician, and 
that of any other witnesses that the coroner may find necessary. Said 
inquest may be private, in which case any or all persons other than those 
required to be present by the provisions of this act may be excluded 
from the place where the same is held, and said coroner may also direct 
the witnesses to be kept separate so that they can not converse with 
each other until they have been examined. The district attorney, or 
some person designated by him, shall attend the inquest, and may ex- 
amine all witnesses. 4 
THE CORONER'S SYSTEM OF NEW YORK CITY. 
Sec. 8. The coroner shall have power to issue subpoenas for wit- 
nesses, returnable either forthwith or at such time and place as he shall 
appoint therein, and it shall be the duty of the cororier to give due no- 
tice of the time and place of the inquest to the inquest physician who 
examined and reported on the case, and it shall be the duty of said 
physician to attend said inquest. 
Sec. 9. The coroner shall, after hearing the testimony, draw up and 
sign a report, in which he shall find and certify when, where, and by 
what means the person deceased came to his death, his name, if known, 
and all material circumstances attending his death; and if it appears 
that his death resulted wholly or in part from the unlawful act of any 
person, he shall further state, if known to him, the name of such per- 
son, and of any person whose unlawful act contributed to such death, 
which report shall be returned by him to the office of the District At- 
torney of the City and County of New York. 
Sec. 10. Any police justice in the city and county of New' York is 
hereby authorized and empowered, in case the attendance of a coroner 
can not be procured within twelve hours after the discovery of a dead 
body, upon which an inquest is now' by law required to be held, to hold 
an inquest thereon, in the same manner and with the like force and 
effect as coroners. 
Sec. 11. From and after the passage of this act no person shall 
be eligible to the office of coroner who is not a duly qualified lawyer. 
Sec. 12. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of 
this act are hereby repealed. 
Sec. 13. This act shall take effect on the expiration of the terms 
of office for which the present coroners of the city and county of New 
York were respectively elected.