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alone would mean a fair diminution in the Finsbury death rate.
If the addresses on death certificates give rise to difficulty, so,
also, do the entries referring to the causes of death.
To take two actual examples:—
1. A patient was notified to be suffering from phthisis by
various poor law medical officers. He died, and his death was
wrongly attributed on the death certificate to pneumonia by one
of the doctors who had notified the patient. The matter was
referred to the Registrar-General, who communicated with the
doctor concerned. The cause of death was then altered to
phthisis.
2. A Finsbury patient was notified to be suffering from
phthisis on 11 occasions by seven different medical men, including
one consultant, who was an assistant physician to a large London
general hospital, and 5 poor law doctors. The patient was
examined by the London representative of a large tuberculosis
sanatorium and accepted for treatment as a suitable case. He
was in a sanatorium for three months. He was under the supervision
of the Public Health staff for live years, and had the usual
signs and symptoms of phthisis. He died, and his death was
entered on the death certificate as due to asthma by a poor law
doctor, who had notified the patient as suffering from phthisis on
three separate occasions. The facts were communicated to the
Registrar-General, who wrote to the doctor who had signed the
death certificate. He replied that, in his opinion," tubercle was
not present." It will be seen, therefore, that death certification,
at the present day, is still far from satisfactory. Other examples
were given in the annual report for 1911.
Inquests.—During the past year 183 inquests were held in the
Borough, of which 10 were on the bodies of non-residents who
died suddenly in the district. Sixty-four were on children under 5
years of age, 119 on adults and children over 5 years of age.
Amongst the causes of death were the following :—Accidental falls,
17; Burns and Scalds, 10; run over by taxicabs and motor buses,
6; run over by cabs and horsed vans, 3; overlain in bed by
parents, 17 deaths. None of these deaths, during the year, were
certified to be accelerated by want of food, exposure or destitution.