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Deaths from diseases of the zymotic class occurred at public institutions without the borough
.as follows:—Western Hospital 20 (diphtheria 13, scarlet fever 5, measles 2); South-Western Hospital 1
(enteric fever); North-Western Hospital 1 (enteric fever); Northern Hospital 1 (diphtheria); Joyce
Green Hospital 1 (small-pox); St. Mary's Hospital 3 (measles 1, diarrhoea 2); St. George's Hospital 2
(measles 1, diarrhoea 1); West London Hospital 2 (diarrhoea); London Throat Hospital, Great
Portland Street 1 (diphtheria) One death from enteric fever took place in a private nursing institution
in Camden Road.
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 l'6per
cent, of total deaths; the proportion in London was 0.2.
The subject of uncertified deaths was considered, in the Session of 1893, by a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, appointed "to inquire 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 three inquests were held on parishioners, including 42 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
90 cases. Forty-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 105
Deaths caused by violence (98), viz.:—
Accidental 77
Suicidal 21
— 98
Total 208
Of the 21 suicidal deaths, 4 belong to [the Brompton sub-district and 17 to the Town
sub-district.
The inquests on Kensington parishioners were in the proportion of 8•0 per cent, on total
deaths, the rate in the Metropolis being 9•6 per cent.; in England and Wales the rate was 6•5 per
cent. The relative percentages in 1903 were 8•2, 10•2 and 6•9 respectively.
The deaths from violence (98) were equal to 0•55 per 1,000 of the population in Kensington;
the corresponding rates were 0•64 per 1,000 in London, as a whole, and 0•57 per 1,000 in England
and Wales.
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The tables at pp. 31-34 show (1) the number of notifications of all the scheduled diseases in
London in 1904; (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 1904, and in the
ten preceding years.