San Francisco coroner's office : a history 1850-1980 / Terence Beckington Allen.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-98) and index.

A history of San Francisco Coroner's Office is one history of the City. Here you find the character of people who held the office of Coroner--their intentions, campaigns, comments, contributions. A coroner's function is to determine cause of death by conducting autopsies or by holding inquests or judicial inquiries--their work not always pleasant but always human. In San Francisco the work of the Coroners who were mostly physicians influence this city's public health, and later through publications affected public health policy elsewhere.