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Childbirth was fatal in 31 instances. Premature birth in 60 instances. Stillborn
children are not registered. 19 children died from congenital malformations.
183 persons died from old age, of whom 2 were above 95, and 10
between 90 and 95 years of age.
The ages at death are deserving of notice. Under the age of 1 year there
were 972, nearly 23 per cent. of the entire number of deaths. Under the age
of 5 years there were 1817 deaths, nearly 43 per cent. of the whole mortality.
During the second five years of life the deaths numbered only 199, being nearly
5 per cent. of the deaths at all ages. During the third five years, that is between
10 and 15 years of age, the deaths numbered only 82, which is less than 2 per
cent. of all deaths; in the next 10 years of life, 189 deaths; between 25 and
35 years of age, 285; and for the several consecutive periods of 10 years up to
the age of 85, the numbers of deaths were as follows: 323, 342, 393, 353,
and 239. Above the age of 85 there were only 46 deaths, 3 of these being
over 95.
Amongst the causes of death, those which may be classed together as violent
deaths are worthy of notice. There were 23 suicides; one by means of a pistol,
6 by cutting their throats, 2 by poison, 3 by drowning, 7 by hanging, and 4 by
other methods, of which 2 were by jumping from a window. The violent
deaths from accident or negligence numbered 95; of these, 89 were from
fractures and contusions, 4 being received on the railway, 3 from scaffold
accidents, and 10 on the road by falls, from being run over by horses or some
vehicle. There were 28 deaths from burns and scalds, of which 16 were
children under 15 years of age. There were 4 young children scalded to death,
and one killed by drinking hot water from the spout of a kettle. All the burns
were by the catching on fire of clothes, not by a general conflagration. They
are very frequently due to children being left alone in rooms were there is a
fire without any screen. Two deaths were from poison taken accidentally, one
opium, and the other iodine. Four persons were accidentally drowned. There
were 15 deaths ascribed to suffocation; of these, 12 were in children under one
year old, and one between one and two years of age. Some of these are due to
the mother going to bed in a state of intoxication and overlying the infant;
others are due to too many persons sleeping in one bed; others to carelessness
and over sound sleep on the part of the mother or nurse; and others are
probably intentional.
There were 9 newly-born infants murdered, and 3 cases of manslaughter, 2 of
children 3 years old, and one of a man aged 42. Twenty-two children are
registered as dying from want of breast milk; many of the deaths ascribed to
convulsions, atrophy, debility, and other causes, are in part due to the same
cause, taken in conjunction with the improper food which is administered to
children deprived of their natural sustenance.
Ten deaths were from delirium tremens, induced by intoxicating drinks;
nine directly from intemperance. Many of the accidental deaths, probably onehalf,
were due to intoxication. Many of the cases of apoplexy, of diseases of
the liver and kidneys, might be traced to an excessive use of alcoholic drinks.
It is to be hoped that the establishment of public drinking fountains in the
Parish will tend to diminish the amount of intemperance, and that the introduction
of light foreign wines at a lower price may ultimately have the effect of
giving a taste for milder drinks than such as have formerly been preferred.
At present there are six drinking fountains erected in the following localities:
in the Camden Broadway; near the "Workhouse; at the top of Cromer Street;
in the Pancras Yale, near Adelaide Terrace; in Brewer Street, Somers Town;
and near Highgate Hill. Arrangements are made for the erection of five others
on the following sites:—the north end of Mornington Crescent, Albert Road,
Regent's Park, Euston Square, Cumberland Market, and Junction Place,