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73
DEATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The only " large public institution " within the parish in
which we are directly interested, is the parish Infirmary and
Workhouse, situated in the Town sub-district. There are
several minor public, or quasi-public institutions ; but, with
one exception, they do not furnish occasion for special remark.
The excepted institution is St. Joseph's House, Portobello
Road, Notting Hill—a Roman Catholic Home for aged poor
persons, of both sexes, brought from various parts, largely
from Ireland : but the Registrar General does not class it as a
" public institution." The deaths of non-parishioners at the
Marylebone Infirmary, Notting Hill (456) and at the Brompton
Consumption Hospital (131) are excluded from our
statistics, but will furnish occasion for a few remarks later on.
The deaths of parishioners registered at the Parish Infirmary
and Workhouse (423) at the Brompton Consumption Hospital
(5) and at outlying institutions, &c., (312) were 740, or 25.4
per cent. on total deaths, the percentage proportion of deaths
in public institutions in the Metropolis generally, being 26.9.
The Registrar-General in his Annual Summary states that
" About one in every eight deaths occurred in a Workhouse
or Infirmary, one in 42 in a Metropolitan Asylum Hospital,
one in 10 in some other hospital, and one in 56 in a public
lunatic or imbecile asylum." The increase in the number
of deaths in public institutions has been great and continuous
for some years past.
The Parish Infirmary and Workhouse.—I am
indebted to Dr. H. Percy Potter, Medical Superintendent of
the Infirmary and Medical Officer to the Workhouse, for the
statistics of mortality at these important institutions. The
deaths in 1893, were 423, compared with 394, 523, and 433, in
the preceding three years, and were equal to 14 5 per cent. on
total deaths. The quarterly numbers were 109, 92, 98, and 124: