THE JURY AND THE SMALLPOX.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3323, 26 November 1883, Page 2

THE JURY AND THE SMALLPOX.

Tlio “ Birmingham Mail ” reports an extraordinary scene which has occurred at the holding of an inquest upon the body of an inmate of the borough gaol who had died from smallpox. It may not ho generally known that a coroner is bound to hold an inquest on the body of any prisoner who may die in one of her Majesty’s prisons, no matter how evident the real cause of death may be. This entailed on the jurymen who had been subpoenaed the not very desirable duty of viewing the body. Tho deputy-

coroner (Mr Weekcs) had, from motives which require no explanation, kept the fact from his jurymen till he had got them comfortably and securely within the court, and then ho unfolded it to them. The bare statement that they were to hold an iuqnest on a smallpox case was enough ; four or five of them required no further particulars to make up their minds that they would not view the body. No, they would not for all the coroners in the Kingdom ; they did not care what precautions had been taken. Persuasion having failed to convince these obstinate few, Mr Weekes was compelled to read to them in very sepulchral and solemn tones the penalties which the law prescribed for such cases. Discontent was not, however, stifled, as was evidenced by the lowering brows and low mutterings of the fourteen good men and true who had been empannelled, and the coroner told them he would allow them to smoke, drink, or take any other means they chose of avoiding the infection. This seemed to soothe them, and Sergeant Gosling marched his little army downstairs to their long funereal vehicle with the supposition that they had all been thoroughly broken in. Going downstairs, however, one thirsty soul suggested they should have the drinks then, and another, a lover of the noxious weed, no doubt, took up the hint and talked about cigars, When they got into the street they rushed pell-mell for tobacco and liquor. One teetotaller and non-smoker was in a sad way. What was he to do Brandy and Soda,” said one facetious colleague ; Black Jack," said another. On medical grounds this abstemious individual at length brought himself to imbibe a glass of very weak whiskey and water, but ho could not brace himself up to the task of smoking oven a Pickwick; he dreaded sickness. It was quite a quarter of an hour before all these dutiful citizens had provided themselves sufficiently with liquor, and ballasted themselves with an equal stock of smoking material, to face the perils before them, and then the worst smoking carriage on any railway in the kingdom would have paled its ineffectual fires before the furnaces which glowed and puffed in the “ coroner’s van.” And after all it was found that, as Mr Weekes had told them, there was nothing to fear. All the jury had to do was to keep at a respectable distance from an air-tight coffin in the yard, with a piece of glass at the end of the lid to disclose the face of the corpse.