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9
Inflammatory diseases of the lungs added to the
mortality about the same numbers in each year.
The other diseases offer no occasion for comment.
There is however one class of causes of deaths that
must not be passed over without notice. Eighty persons
perished in 1855 from violent deaths, and seventy-nine
in 1856. Seventy-eight other deaths in 1855 and fiftytwo
in 1856 are recorded under the vague denomination
"sudden." Many of these deaths, besides others, were
the subject of investigation by Coroners' inquests. The
object of a Coroner's inquest is of course to ascertain the
cause of death. But the practice of finding such indefinite
verdicts as "found dead"; "died by the visitation
of God", effectually defeats that object. It even
serves to enshroud cases already obscure in thicker
mystery. Thus it is, that the very class of deaths for
the elucidation of which a special organisation is provided,
and which it is of paramount importance to
society to clear up, remain the most doubtful and unsatisfactory
of all.
Table II. (Appendix) exhibits some remarkable
facts. It shews in the first place that the aggregate
mortality was considerably less in 1856 than in 1855.
The total deaths in the latter year were 2719, in the
former 2998. This diminution is the more striking
when we reflect that there is abundant evidence of an
increased population in 1856. The rapid extension of
building strikes every eye. The increase in the number