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5
deaths from burns and scalds. Six children are reported
to have died of that form of slow torture called drynursing.
There were 5 suicides; 2 infants suffocated;
4 found dead at home with no cause assigned; and
4 others newly born found in the streets, or in Hyde
Park. Sixteen persons died of fractures from accidents.
Eleven of these were non-parishioners in St. George's
Hospital. It may be noticed in passing, that 15 workmen
employed in the building for the International Exhibition
have died from accident in that hospital.
In concluding this sketch of the mortality of the
parish during the first quarter of the year, we cannot
help remarking how clearly, as we analyse the death
returns quarter after quarter, the influence of the leading
circumstances which regulate the rate of mortality is
marked out. They are, first the influence of climate, of
excessive heat and cold, of undrained malarious land,
and of exposure to wet. Secondly, overcrowded, illventilated
and ill-drained houses, and want of personal
cleanliness. Thirdly, the moral causes, the want of diligence,
of acuteness, and above all the want of control
over the lower appetites. It is from improved education
and moral training of the lower classes that we must
expect any decrease of the present death-rate.
The Sickness.
In the Hanover and May-fair Sub-districts, the number
of persons who obtained out-door medical relief from
the Parochial Surgeons, and from the Medical Officers of
the Dispensary, Mount-street, and in the Sick Wards of
the Mount-street Workhouse, was 997. Out of this
number, 246, or a fourth, were affected with bronchitis,