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8
returns will no longer fall within the sphere of this gentleman's
duties, I cannot let the opportunity pass without recording my
very great appreciation of the care displayed by Mr. Waters in
apportioning these Institution deaths to their proper locality.
Mr. Waters, in a private letter informing me of the change,
reminded me that the returns were in the first place made at the
request of ten Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health, of
whom only three, including myself, still retain the appointments
they then held. Mr. Waters has a perfectly unique knowledge of
Borough boundaries, and I can scarcely recall an instance where
I have had occasion to exclude an hospital death returned by him
as that of a late Bethnal Greener.
Amougst the deaths registered as occurring in the Bethnal
Green Infirmary, I note those of 23 persons stated to have had
no home; also amongst the deaths returned by Mr. Waters are
those of 21 persons who had been removed from their homes to
the Bethnal Green Workhouse, whence they had been transferred
on Magistrates' orders to various Metropolitan Asylums, in which
institutions they had died. Through the kindness of Mr. Thomas,
the Clerk to the Guardians, I am usually able to trace the exact
previous residences of these insane persons, but in the particular
instances under consideration I failed to do so. In calculating
the mortality rates of the sub-districts, it would be manifestly
unfair to dump on to the East sub-district (in which the workhouse
is situated) the whole of these deaths: they are therefore
distributed amongst the three sub-districts in proportion to the
known deaths in each.