THE BODY IN TttE RIVER<br >BoDIes seldom get into the River Thames by accident，<br >although it is true that few days pass when at least one is<br >not taken from the indifferent waters of London s river.<br >Most of these are found between Putney--where on a day<br >in spring the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race starts and<br >sixteen young stalwarts and two near-pigmies provide de-<br >light， excitement， exercise of lungs and larynx for a million<br > artisan Londoners--and Tilbury Docks. Of every dozen<br > odies found between these two points， at least six are<br >pulled from the river by the River Police within a short<br >distance of that crowded stretch of water between West-<br >minster Bridge and Tower~Bridge.<br > These facts preoccupy very few people. The Press takes<br >a hopeful interest， but only the police trouble to make a<br >record and turn a corpse into a series of notes on an index<br >card. The police are never surprised to find a corpse. To<br >the river patrols it is almost a matter of course to change<br >direction， use the boat-hook， haul the body in and proceed<br >to the nearest landing-stage. The first thing they do， of<br >course， is to make sure that they have in fact found a corpus，<br >that life is truly extinct， and that artificial respiration will<br >do nothing to resuscitate the unhappy victim of circum-<br >stances.<br > So rigid are the ways of the London police， whether of<br >the River， the City or the Metropolitan area， that the<br >deceased is not officially considered to have passed on until<br >a police-surgeon or， in extremity， some other doctor， has<br >formally pronounced that life is extinct. From that mo-<br >ment onwards the discovery is a matter for investigation;<br >often some surprising facts are discovered about the cir-<br >cumstances which led to the extinguishing of life.<br > Few men knew more about the variety of contributory<br > 7<br ><br >