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to Cancer is hereditary, but even when disclosed, the fact does not
appear to be considered as a bar to marriage.
The deaths from Tuberculous diseases, also included in this class,
comprise Tabes Mesenterica or Consumption of the bowels 12; Tubercular
Meningitis and Hydrocephalus (water on the brain) 6; Consumption
(parishioners only), including 8 who died in outlying Institutions, 69.
Inquests.—The number of inquests held was 70, the deaths in 37
instances being caused by violence; 4 infants perished by suffocation when
in bed with mother. Of the ten cases of suicide, death was caused by
drowning, by bullet wounds, by falls from windows, by wounds in throat,
and in two instances by poisoning with Carbolic Acid, one of the most
easily obtained poisons. The death of a child was caused by impaction
of food in the windpipe, and in the case of a wife, aged 47, by cocaine
poisoning, by misadventure.
Mortuary.—The total number of bodies received during the year
was 82, an increase of 5 on the previous year; 56 of these were
admitted by the Coroner's order, 16 were brought in by the Police, and
10 at the request of friends and relatives. The number of post-mortem
examinations made was 39.
It may be of interest to state that the Mortuary at New End
Hampstead, was first opened in February, 1891. The building contains
two chambers, one for infectious bodies, and one for non-infectious
bodies. The room for the post-mortem examinations is convenient and
well adapted for the purposes for which it was designed, and much
satisfaction has been expressed by the Medical men who have been
failed on to make such examinations. The number of bodies brought in
by relatives is rising but very slowly, and it is to be regretted that the
public has not yet learnt to make sufficient use of the Mortuary as
a place of deposit for the bodies of those awaiting interment, and
especially that portion of the public that is without proper accommodation
for the retention of dead bodies in their homes.
By Sec. 8 of the Infectious Diseases Prevention Act (1890), it is
provided that after death from an infectious disease, a body may not