WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION 3675

application made to it at any time by any party in interest, upon the
presentation of facts showing that a controversy may exist in regard to
the cause of death or the existence of any occupational disease. All pro-
ceedings for compensation shall be suspended upon refusal of a claimant
or claimants to permit such autopsy when so ordered, and no compensation
shall be payable for any period during which autopsy is refused.

The State Industrial Accident Commission shall refer every claim for
compensation for an occupational disease to the Medical Board for in-
vestigation, hearing and report, excepting, however, such cases wherein
there are no controverted medical issues. No award shall be made in any
such case until the Medical Board shall have duly investigated and heard
the case and made its report and its decisions with respect to all medical
questions at issue. The date of disablement, if in dispute, shall be deemed
a medical question.

The Medical Board, upon reference to it of a claim for occupational
disease, shall notify the claimant or claimants and the employer to appear
before it at a time and place stated in said notice. At such hearing either
party may offer testimony of such witnesses as they may desire, which
shall become a part of the record of the proceedings before the Medical
Board. If the employee be living, he shall appear before the Medical Board
at the time and place specified and shall then or thereafter submit to such
examinations, including clinical and X-ray examinations, as the Medical
Board may require. The claimant and the employer or his insurance car-
rier shall each be entitled, at his own expense, to have present at all exam-
inations conducted by the Medical Board, a physician admitted to practice
medicine in the State who shall be given every reasonable facility for
participating in every such examination. If a physician admitted to prac-
tice medicine in the State shall certify that the employee is physically
unable to appear at the time and place designated by the Medical Board,
the Board shall, on notice to the parties, change the place and time of
examination to such other place and time as may reasonably facilitate the
examination of the employee. Proceedings shall be suspended and no com-
pensation shall be payable for any period during which the employee may
refuse to submit to such examination.

The Medical Board shall, as soon as practicable after it has completed
its consideration of the case, report in writing its findings and conclusions
on every medical question in controversy. If the date of disablement is
controverted and cannot be exactly fixed scientifically, the Medical Board
shall fix the most probable date, having regard to all the circumstances of
the case. The Medical Board shall also include in its report a statement
indicating the physician or physicians, if any, who appeared before it,
and what, if any, medical reports and X-rays were considered by it.

1939, ch. 465, sec. 32-I.

42. The Medical Board shall file with the State Industrial Accident
Commission the records of all proceedings had before the Medical Board,
including transcript of the testimony of all witnesses appearing on behalf
of the claimant and the employer, together with its own report and findings
upon all medical questions involved in the claim. Included in such record
shall be the findings of the Medical Board, determining the nature of the
disease, the extent of injury and the degree of disability sustained by the
claimant.