Note 81 — OF THE CORONER’s INQUEST.
Reading edition
It must be on the actual view of the body, the coroner and his party seeing it together. 2 Hale 60. 1 East. 380. King v. Ferrand. 2 Barn. & Ald. 260.
It was evidently the original intention of the Legislature, that the coroner should view the body on the spot where it was found; that he and his jury might judge as well by inspection of the body, as by an examination of surrounding objects, whether the deceased had died by violence. And Sir William Blackstone says, “He must also sit at the very place where the death happened,” 1 Com. 348. and this should certainly be done in all possible cases, for the state of surrounding objects most frequently will testify more strongly than any other evidence. Modern fastidiousness has introduced the custom of removing the body to some public-house, even where the death had happened in an ordinary dwelling; this if not illegal, is at least improper.