Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly.

  • Jamaica. Central Board of Health
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by the Central Board of Health of Jamaica / presented to the legislature under the provisions of the 14th Vic. chap. 60, and printed by order of the Assembly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    settle in the island. The opinion of a medics!.coro- ner would be well founded as to the necessity or a post mortem examination, and conseqnenllv alike con<]iicive to the ends of justice as well as economy ; and I believe they would, as a body, slirink from a merely mercenary traffic in their functions. By a clause in the act tliey may be debarred from holding any other parochial appointment, leaviuj^ the hnspi- ta) or asvlum, out-door poor, health oflicer, police, &c. to a second medical practitioner; this would se- cure two medical men to every country parish ; they would also have their private practice, and if a healthy and extensive s}stem of immigration was commenced, (the only menus left to stay this agri- cultural country from a further retrogression,) it may be the source from which a third resicient n)edi<::al practitioner could be introduced. The great want of inedical aid is so pressing and so immediate, it is a subject well worthy of legislative consideration how far it would be practicable to remove and compensate the present holders of the coroner's olhce. ISo. 12. A register was kept in this parish of births and deaths ; it commenced in 1844, but was never regularly made available by the people ; a good ma- ny births were registered until the act was repealed, (but the repeal was disallowed.) from that time it fell off and has become a dead letter, no names iiaving been registered for the last year. No. 13. V/itboiit any register to refer to, it is the opinion of Dr. Clarke, resident many yenrs in this parish, that amongst the adult and able bodied por- tion of the population, l>y far the most ordinary cause of death is neglected iufiammation of the contents of the chest, particularly pleuro pneumonia. No. 14. There are many married couples among our peasantry whose conduct is unexceptionable, but 1 regret to add, tl)e rites of m.arriage are not so ge- nerally observed as could be desired ; in very many instances young men have married women consider- ;ibiy older thap themselyes, who ha^l acquired lyoney