MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE) or for the extension of knowledge. When autopsy is ordered by a coroner for legal purposes the relatives have no option, but in most instances of patients dying in hospitals, the consent of the relatives is sought and their cision, if negative, is rigorously observed.
There is great difference amongst nationalities with regard to post-mortem examinations. In the United States, in Catholic countries, amongst Jews and Irish there is great aversion towards autopsies, with the result that the advance of medical knowledge is seriously handicapped. In the absence of autopsy a diagnosis of the cause of death is in large measure an opinion as distin guished from a fact. Even a physician of the highest skill often finds in the post-mortem room that his diagnosis of the patient's disease during life needs rectification. The knowledge he obtains thus he applies in future cases to the advantage of those patients.
The performance of an autopsy calls for special knowledge and skill on the part of the pathologist, and, besides inspection of the various organs, microscopical, bacteriological and chemical methods are employed where necessary and a detailed report on the case supplements the clinical notes in the hospital records. The extent to which advance of knowledge depends upon post-mortem exam ination is hardly realized. Thus the entire range of cancer re search depends upon an accurate diagnosis of cancer, which can only be made microscopically and, in the case of the internal organs, depends either on surgical operation or on autopsy. In their absence the diagnosis is at best conjectural. When post mortem examination has been carried out by a skilled pathologist there is no disfigurement, and the feelings of the relatives are considered to the fullest possible extent.