ELIZABETH CAWTHON.  "Thomas Wakley and the Medical Coronership--
Occupational Death and the Judicial Process."  Medical History,
1986.  30: 191-202.


     Elizabeth Cawthon's legal history is a synthesis of social
history and biographical history.    It is Cawthon's task to
illustrate how the influence of one man, Thomas Wakley, changed
the way inquests were conducted.  Legal history is not
necessarily tied to either one of these historical methodologies,
but Cawthon realizes a successful combination of the two in this
article.  
     Cawthon's article is a fairly dry and unimaginative
exposition of the evolution of the inquests moving from being 
basically medical in nature to being controlled by legal
figures.<1>  Along the way, Cawthon displays the traditional
concern for the lower classes typical among social historians; 
Wakley is a crusader out to protect the rights of the new outland
industrial underclass made up of groups like railway workers. 
Her methodology and presentation is not so strict, however as
that of a non-alloyed social historian (e.g.  Professor David
Narrett).  There are no charts or graphs to be seen.  Still,
Wakley's work is ground in quantifiable information that Narrett
might find useful:  she bases her article on "2000 separate
accounts of coroner's inquests (191)" as well as several
secondary source materials that deal with the more technical side
of job injuries.
     The biography-side of this article shows up distinctly in
Cawthon's text when she begins to address the problems Wakley's
personality made for his political aims.   She note's that
Wakley's behavior, for example " . . . helped to alienate some of
the very professionals whose support he needed to carry through
reforms of the coronership (197)."  Still, this biographical
snippet does not approach, qualitatively, the beautiful and
perceptive prose of a talented biographer such as Dr. Lewis
Baker.  One might forgive this fault, remembering that our
author, after all, is chained to the terrifically uninteresting
field of legal history.
     Regardless, Cawthon is to be commended for reaching an
acceptable, even if not exemplary, synthesis between social
history and biographical detail.  Legal history, riding as it
does on the fringes of history proper, is a field not yet saddled
with historiographical orthodoxy, and as such has plenty of room
for historical exercises like that of Cawthon's.

     Jason Carr
     University of Texas at Arlington
     Arlington
                             NOTES



<1>Dry with the exception of Wakley's reply on page 194;  "'If
this is not the body of the man who was killed in your vat, pray,
Sir, how many paupers have you boiled.?'"
http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/uta/