160 LAWS OF MARYLAND [CH. 76

originals of all the certificates of birth, death and stillbirth
received by him. Deputy local registrars shall transmit cer-
tificates received by them at intervals and in the manner pre-
scribed by the regulations of said Board.

(c) At the time of mailing the original certificates of birth,
death, and stillbirth to the State Board of Health, the local
registrar shall prepare for the health officer of his county
a copy of such certificate upon the form provided by the said
Board and certified by the registrar to be a true and correct
copy; provided that the State Board of Health is authorized,
when deemed by it to be in the public interest, to prepare such
copies, photostatically or otherwise, in its own office, and to
instruct the local registrar not to prepare such copies. In
either event, such copies shall be forwarded as promptly as
possible to the county health officer concerned, by the Board
or its designated agent.

(d) Each local and deputy local registrar, on the first day
of each calendar month, shall forward to the State Board of
Health upon the form to be provided by the Board, a report
of the number of certificates transmitted by him to the Board
during the preceding calendar month; and if no certificates
have been received by him during said month, the report shall
state that fact.

17. (Content of Birth, Death and Stillbirth Certificates. )

(a) The certificate forms for registering births, deaths and
stillbirths shall be prepared by the State Board of Health
and shall contain the personal data, places, dates, and other
circumstances and identifications prescribed by said Board
for proper registration and utilization of such records.

(b) All such records shall be written plainly in unfading
ink and shall be signed by the person required to make the
record, and no certificate shall be held to be complete or
correct that does not supply all of the items of information
called for upon the certificate form so far as it is possible to
obtain the same.

18. (Execution and Filing of Death Certificates. )

(a) The certificate of death shall be filled out and signed
within 24 hours after death by the physician last in attend-
ance upon the deceased, except in such cases where the Medical
Examiner takes charge of the corpse, in which case the cer-
tificate shall be executed by him.

(b) When the Medical Examiner is unable to determine the
cause of death within 24 hours after receipt of a corpse, he
shall promptly make the entry "Inquest pending" in the cause