Chapter 4-6 Summary and Analysis

Chapter four deals with the history of medical examiners. The first mention of the office of coroner is in 1194. In those days the reason for needing a coroner was to make sure the person who had die did not commit suicide. If this was the case, any material belonging to the dead person would go to the king. The coroner was more or less a tax collector. He was not even in the medical field, his only qualification needed to be loyalty to the king. This was the case for many years. The coroner was not paid in most cases and if he was, it was not much. The whole idea of autopsies was a grotesque concept and forbidden by religion. The first recorded autopsy is performed in 1665, when Franis Carpenter beats his servant, Samuell Yeoungman in the head...