Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Utilitarianism, Medical Practitioners, Health, Politics

    Discusses a report of the meeting of the guardians of the St Pancras Poor Law Union, at which an increase in the number of inquests held upon the bodies of paupers dying in the workhouse was revealed. The meeting also insinuated that this increase was caused by avaricious medical officers seeking fees for conducting more inquests. Punch agrees that such inquests are unnecessary because it believes most pauper deaths to be due to misery rather than 'special neglect'.