Coroner
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Coroner. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a functionary whose name coroner-anciently coronator, from Lat. corona a crown-implies that he has principally to do with pleas of the crown or in which at least the crown is concerned. His office is very ancient, men tion being made of it in A. D. 925. 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 decision as to the cause of death. "Accidental death" is a frequent verdict, but there are cases in which it is "Willful murder against some person or persons unknown," or an individual is named. In this the proceedings under the auspices of the coroner prepare the way for a criminal prosecution. He also officiates as a sheriff's substitute when the sheriff himself is interested in a suit, and cannot therefore act in it himself. From four to six are appointed for each coun- 11-Vol. III-Cyc ty in England. In the United States the coroner is an elective county officer. His duties are similar to those of a coroner in England.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a county officer whose business it is to inquire into the cause of a sudden or suspicious or accidental death. He has power to empanel a jury and examine witnesses. A coroner's verdict to the effect that the deceased came to an end by foul play, or through the carelessness of another, lays the basis for criminal action by indictment, or for a damage suit to be brought by the relatives. The coroner is usually elected by ballot, the same as other county officials.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe an elected lay county officer who empanels a jury over the body; that model has been widely dismantled. New York City abolished its coroners in 1918 and replaced them with an appointed, medically qualified chief medical examiner, and most large American jurisdictions followed, so that today roughly half the US population is served by medical examiner systems rather than coroners, though elected coroners with no medical training survive in many rural counties. In England and Wales the coroner survives but is transformed: the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 required new coroners to be qualified lawyers, restricted juries to a narrow class of deaths, and replaced the old "verdicts" Collier's listed with "conclusions" such as unlawful killing. Forensic pathology also became a formal specialty, board-certified in the United States from 1959, so the medical question the jury once decided is now usually settled by an autopsy report.
Written for this edition, 2026.