The stage of decomposition, the odour of which not infrequently pervades the clothes for the rest of the day, and apart altogether from the depressing influence of its constant recurrence, is disagreeable. The inconvenience of the journey to the mortuary, in all weathers, is to be still further aggravated by the removal of the mortuary to a still more distant place.
For these duties the Coroner receives a salary of sixty dollars a month, and have no hesitation in saying that nothing except absolute necessity could induce any Officer to accept it. The Coroner's time is not his own, and he never knows but when he may be called upon to institute an enquiry. Consequently, it is out of his power to make any engagement for any afternoon without the possibility and even the probability of its being infringed.
It is unsafe in this climate to allow a body to remain unburied for over twenty-four hours. At the same time, the Coroner's office supplies a great public want, and in a mixed community of Chinese and Europeans, it affords a wholesome check upon improper practices.
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