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Homicide. One death was certified due to Manslaughter, and two, of infants in the first year,
to Murder.
Suicide accounted for 14 deaths, seven in each of the sub-districts; viz., from Gun Shot
Wounds 3, Cut, Stab 2, Poison 3, Drowning 1, Hanging 3, "Otherwise" 2.
Ill-defined and Not specified Causes of death were returned in 73 cases, 63 in the Town subdistrict
and 10 in Brompton: 67 were certified due to Debility, A trophy, Inanition, 60 of them of
infants under one year.
DEATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The only large public institution in which we are directly interested, is the borough 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 this is not
classed by the Registrar-General as a public institution. The deaths of non-parishioners at the
Marylebone Infirmary, Notting Hill (561), at the Brompton Consumption Hospital (74), and at
St. Joseph's House (20), are excluded from our statistics, but will furnish occasion for a few remarks
later on. The deaths of parishioners at the Parish Infirmary and Workhouse (528), at the
Consumption Hospital (1), at St. Marylebone Infirmary (2), at St. Joseph's House (8), and at
out-lying institutions, &c. (315), were 854, or 31.1 per cent. on total deaths; the percentage
proportion of deaths in public institutions in the Metropolis, generally being 34.1; viz., 13,727
in workhouses and workhouse infirmaries; 2,866 in Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals; 9,373 in
other hospitals, and 2,170 in public lunatic and imbecile asylums. The Registrar-General in his
Annual Summary states that " about one in every six deaths occurred in a workhouse or workhouse
infirmary, one in 29 in a Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospital, one in nine in some other hospital, and
one in 38 in a public lunatic or imbecile asylum." The increase in the number of deaths in public
institutions has been great and continuous for many years.
The Borough Infirmary and Workhouse.—I am indebted to Dr. H. Percy Potter, the
medical superintendent, for the statistics of mortality at these important institutions. The deaths,
the causes of which are set out in the table below, were 528, compared with 603,476, and 497, in the
three preceding years respectively, and were equal to 19.2 per cent., not far short of one-fifth, of all
the deaths recorded in the borough. The quarterly numbers were 174, 118, 114, and 122: 296
deaths, therefore, occurred in the first and fourth or colder quarters, and 232 in the second and third
or warmer quarters of the year. The deaths included 286 of males and 242 of females. The ages
at death were:—Under one year, 61 (compared with 73, 58, and 66, in the three preceding years
respectively); between one and sixty, 254 (compared with 309, 213, and 234, in the three preceding
years), and at sixty and upwards, 213 (compared with 221, 205 and 197, in the three preceding
years).