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cate stating the cause of death as " teething and meningitis,"
and a notification certificate, by another doctor, of the child's
illness from diphtheria. It appeared that 011 a particular
Sunday, the first doctor had seen the child and prescribed for it
on account of teething. On the following Wednesday, a second
doctor saw the child and found him suffering from diphtheria.
Death ensued the same day, and the first doctor gave a certificate
of the cause of death as above stated. As the opinions of
the doctors could not be reconciled, the Coroner held an inquest,
a post-mortem examination having been made by an independent
practitioner, who testified that the patient died from
diphtheria, and was not suffering from meningitis. The most
remarkable feature in the case, and the one 011 which the
coroner animadverted, was the facility with which the certificate
of the cause of death was obtained, after a single visit three
days previously, and without any legal evidence of the fact of
death; the fatal result, moreover, being attributed, in good
faith, no doubt, to a disease which the child had not. The case
was not without importance in another respect, seeing that the
father was in the employment of a dairy company who take
precautions to prevent the spread of disease through the agency
of milk. It was the company's doctor who diagnosed the real
disease, having been sent to the house upon the father reporting
to the manager that one of his children was ill. The man
was thereupon removed from his work for a time, pending
disinfection of the premises, &c., the body being retained at the
mortuary.
WHOOPING-COUGH
Whooping-Cough was the cause of 39 deaths, against 63,
65, and 61, in the preceding three years successively; 32 in the
Town sub-district and 7 in Brompton ; the corrected decennial
average being 76"6. All but three of the deaths were of
children under five years of age, including 12 under one year.
The deaths in London from this cause were 1,483: and 2,001