View report page

19
INQUESTS.
The Coroner held 28 inquests, 7.7 of the total mortality, or one
in every 13.5 deaths, The violont deaths numbered 105, threeand-a-half
per cent, of the total deaths ; of these 89 were from
accident or negligence; 16 were suicides, of whom three men and
ono woman hanged themselves; four took poison, two of them
wero men, one taking cyanide of potassium and tho other oxalic
acid; tho two women both took carbolic acid. Two men cut their
throats; a woman threw herself in front of an advancing train;
and an elderly man drowned himsolf whilst in a state of great
destitution. All the suicides were, in the opinion of the Coroner's
juries, of unsound mind at the time they destroyed themselves.
UNCERTIFIED DEATHS,
Only two deaths were uncertified, one was a case of Apoplexy, a
man aged 41, the other was a prematurely born infant.
In respect of uncertified deaths we compare very favourably
with the rest of tho Metropolis, as the uncertified mortality of
London is about one per thousand deaths; perhaps one reason for
this may be that Bethnal Green is the happy hunting ground of
the proprietors of fourpenny dispensaries, and it would be strange
indeed were many persons to die in this district without some sort
of medical attendance; for here the services of registered medical
practitioners can bo obtained for the small sum of one shilling per
week, medicine included. It is, however, to be regretted that some
modical gentlemen are not a little more particular in making
out their death certificates, since in nearly seven per cent, of these
documents tho causes of death were stated in such an ill-defined
manner that it was impossible to classify them, so that 202 deaths
had to be placed in the category of ill-defined and not specified
causes.
DEATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The number of persons who died in Hospital in Bethnal Green
was 556; of these 389 died in the Workhouse (223 males and 156