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14
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
The most fatal of all common diseases is consumption, which has caused 173 deaths:
then follows bronchitis, giving 105; and inflammation of the lungs 90. The deaths from
these three diseases of the chest number 368.

Convulsions have been followed by 75 deaths, and of these 46 were under one, and
71 under five years of age. There have been five deaths from delirium-tremens ; but these
deaths are far from indicating the number of which intemperance has been the cause.
There have been 44 deaths from premature births and debility, and 94 from old age.
Thirty-five deaths have occurred from violence and privation, some of which I will particularise.
Six children have died from suffocation. Two women have been burnt to death
from their clothes taking fire, aged respectively 49 and 71. A child was run over by a
mourning coach, and died two hours after the accident. A woman, aged 40, died from
compression of the brain, by falling from a ladder; as did also a man, aged 66. Five
children were scalded to death by the upsetting of boiling water, tea, broth, and starch.
A woman, aged 62, was suffocated whilst swallowing a large piece of tripe. A woman,
aged 53, died during the frost in January, from exposure to the cold whilst intoxicated.
Another, aged 49, from congestion of the brain, brought on by a blow on the right eye,
from a piece of iron. A man, aged 25, died from rupture of the intestines, the effect of
running against the shaft of a cart. Two male children, aged 2 and 3, died from poison,
supposed to be arsenic; but how taken could not be discovered. A female child, aged 16
months, was starved to death by the mother, against whom the jury brought a verdict
of wilful murder. A man, aged 53, committed suicide by blowing out his brains with
a gun and small shot. Another, aged 48, threw himself from an upper window, and died
a few hours afterwards. A man, aged 31, hung himself by means of a handkerchief
fastened to a hook in the wall of his bed-room. A photographer killed himself by taking
cyanide of potassium. This poisonous compound is now extensively used for the purpose of
photography, and is easily obtained, a reason that has led to its being frequently employed
as a means of self-destruction. A jury presiding over one of the many cases which have
lately happened, recommended all chemists and druggists not to supply this drug, except
to those whom they know, or upon a written order, the signature of which might be
indisputable. It is well for the prevention of murder that the sale of poisons be forbidden;
but it is a great fallacy to suppose that such a measure will "put down" suicide. If the
intending self-murderer be denied the use of one means of death, then he will select
another, and the most ready at hand, and so complete his purpose.