There are various _courts_ in which a medical witness may be called on
to give evidence:
1. =The Coroner's Court.=--When a coroner is informed that the dead body
of a person is lying within his jurisdiction, and that there is
reasonable cause to suspect that such person died either a violent or
unnatural death, or died a sudden death of which the cause is unknown,
he must summon a jury of not less than twelve men to investigate the
matter--in other words, hold an inquest--and if the deceased had
received medical treatment, the coroner may summon the medical attendant
to give evidence. By the Coroners (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1917,
the number of the jury has been cut down to a minimum of seven and a
maximum of eleven men. By the Juries Act of 1918, the coroner has the
power of holding a court without a jury if, in his discretion, it
appears to be unnecessary. In charges of murder, manslaughter, deaths of
prisoners in prison, inmates of asylums or inebriates' homes, or of
infants in nursing homes, he must summon a jury. The coroner may be
satisfied with the evidence as to the cause of a person's death, and may
dispense with an inquest and grant a burial certificate.
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