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9
CAUSES OP DEATH.
These are tabulated as usual in Table No. V.
Nearly one-fourth of the deaths recorded in our parish are
tabulated by the Registrar-General as Zymotic. This is a larger
per-centage than I have had to record since 1871. Small-pox was
fatal to 66 persons. In the whole of London, 1416 cases of death
from this cause are recorded in 1878, and only 17 in 19 country
towns.
Partial isolation, it is evident, is not very successful,
for 897 of these 1416 cases died in small-pox hospitals, ilore is
required in the direction of complete, isolation. At present, however,
there is no outbreak to alarm us, and probably we must wait
for some renewed epidemic in order to arouse further attention.
Measles and Scarlatina were both less fatal than last year; but (as
in the rest of London) Whooping-cough has been more than usually
fatal; in fact, we have passed through a whooping-cough epidemic,
there being 296 deaths from this cause this year against 165 in
1877, and 181 in 1876. Diarrhoea, moreover, has been specially
fatal, 217 cases of death being recorded.
Seventy-eight cases of death from accident or negligence are
recorded as having occurred in the parish. I may mention that
in the United Kingdom, during the past year, 17,771 deaths were
ascribed to violence. There were, moreover, no less than 26,980
inquests held, which is at the rate of 5 per cent. of the total deaths.
I had intended to set before you my views as a medical
jurist in some detail on this question. It is a very serious one
indeed, and I abstain from doing so for reasons that in the present
state of legislation will be obvious. What is the meaning of these
17,771 deaths from violence, and 26,980 inquests per year in a