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31
Deaths from diseases of the Zymotic class occurred at public institutions without the
borough as follows:—Western Hospital, 31 (diphtheria, 17; scarlet fever, 11; enteric fever, 3); Northwestern
Hospital, 1 (scarlet fever); St. Mary's Hospital, 2 (enteric fever, 1; whooping-cough, 1);
West London Hospital, 1 (enteric fever); Infants' Hospital, Denning Road, Hampstead, 1
(diarrhœa).
UNCERTIFIED DEATHS.
There was not one death in the borough that was "not certified," either by a registered
medical practitioner or by a coroner. In England and Wales the deaths not certified were 1.7 per
cent. of total deaths; the proportion in London was 0.3.
The subject of uncertified deaths was considered, in the session of 1893, by a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, appointed "to enquire into the sufficiency of the existing law as
to the disposal of the dead, for securing an accurate record of the causes of death in all cases, and
especially for detecting them when death may have been due to poison, violence, or criminal
neglect." The recommendations of the Committee were summed up in ten paragraphs, of which
the first two were as follows —
"(1) That in no case should a death be registered without production of a certificate of the
cause of death, signed by a registered medical practitioner, or by a coroner after inquest.
"(2) That in each sanitary district a registered medical practitioner should be appointed as
public medical certifier of the cause of death in cases in which a certificate from a medical
practitioner in attendance is not forthcoming."
No action has been taken, so far, to give effect to the recommendations.
INQUESTS.
Two hundred and two inquests were held on parishioners, including 35 at places without the
borough, mostly at public institutions to which the deceased persons had been removed for treatment.
The cause of death is stated to have been ascertained by post mortem examination in 85
cases. Thirty-nine inquests were held on the bodies of non-parishioners who had died in
Kensington. All of the inquests in the borough were held at the coroner's court at the Town Hall.
The causes of death may be classified as follows:—
Deaths caused by disease 98
Deaths caused by violence (104), viz.:—
Accidental 81
Suicidal 23
104
Total 202
Of the 25 suicidal deaths, 11 belong to the Brompton sub-district and 14 to the Town subdistrict.
The inquests on Kensington parishioners were in the proportion of 8.2 per cent. on total
deaths, the rate in the Metropolis being 10.2 per cent.; in England and Wales the rate was 6.9 per
cent. The relative percentages in 1902 were 8.2, 9.7, and 6.7, respectively.
The deaths from violence (104) were equal to 0.58 per 1,000 of the population in Kensington;
the corresponding rates were 0.68 per 1,000 in London, as a whole, and 0.58 per 1,000 in England
and Wales.
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The tables at pp. 33-36 show (1) the number of notifications of all the scheduled diseases in
London in 1903; (2) the relative prevalence of the several diseases at different periods of the year,
in Kensington and in London; (3) the notifications in the wards comprised in the Borough, and
(4) the case-rate and the death-rate of infectious diseases in Kensington in the year 1903, and in the
ten preceding years.