CORONER, a functionary whose name coroner, or crowner, implies that he has,prin cipally to do with pleas of the Crown or in which at least the Crown is concerned. His office is very ancient, mention being made of it in 925 A.D. His office in England was peculiarly a county institution. In Alfred's time he was appointed by the king, but since Edward I's time the office has been elective. His duties originally had to do with inquiries into fires and cases of wreckage and of sudden death, but now his court is a court of record in which, after sight of the body of one who has died in prison, or so suddenly that suspicions of violence may be excited, a jury summoned for the purpose pronounce a decision as to the cause of death. The proceedings under the auspices of the cor oner prepare the way for a criminal prosecu tion. He also officiates as a sheriff's substitute when the sheriff himself is interested in a suit and cannot therefore act in it himself. In the
United States the coroner is an elective county officer. His duties are similar to those of a coroner in England. Generally he has no right to inquire into the cause or origin of a fire ex cept when death has resulted from it, but by statute in some States he has the power and duty to investigate the causes and origins of fires which appear to be of incendiary origin. Consult (Encyclopedia of the Laws of England' (Vol. III, London 1897); Binmore,