MORGUE. A place where the bodies of persons found dead are exposed for identifi cation, or until they are claimed and re moved by their relatives or friends. A dead house.
A place where the bodies of unidentified dead are kept and exposed to view for the purpose of identification or that they may be claimed by their friends. Koebler v. Pen newel], 75 Ohio St. 278, 79 N. E. 471.
This meaning of the word is a derived, and not its original, one. Its present use in cities is adopted from the Morgue in Paris and is quite general.
The word is derived from morguer to look at sol emnly or sourly, and a morgue was formerly, "in the chastelet of Paris, a certain chair wherein a new-coms prisoner is sat, and must continue some hours, without stirring either head or hand, that the keeper's ordinary servants may the better take notice of his fats and favour." Cotgrave.
A variation in this explanation is that the word originally meant the inner wicket of a prison, where prisoners were kept for some time, that the jailers and turnkeys might view them at their lei sure, so as to be able to recognize them when occa sion required. Int. Encyc.
The term morgue as used in a statute for bidding the establishment of one on a street on which there are dwelling houses, except under certain conditions of consent of the owners or occupants, does not make it un lawful to receive, care for and keep tempo rarily in an undertaking establishment in' such location, in a private room and unex posed to public view, the bodies of known and identified dead taken there from time to time by relatives or friends in order that funeral services may be held and conducted at that place; Koebler v. Pennewell, 75 Ohio St. 278, 79 N. E. 471.
The position of morgue keeper, being one of public trust with fixed salary and con tinuous duties, not menial, is a public office within a rule requiring appointments to be in writing ; People v. Keller, 30 Misc. 52, 61 N. Y. Supp. 746.