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diseases, common to old age, viz., heart diseases in 11 cases ; lung
diseases, 7 ; brain diseases, 9 ; liver and kidney, and sundry other
diseases, 9.
INQUESTS.
The cause of death in 166 cases was returned by the Coroner
(inquests), viz., 132 in the Town sub-district and 34 in Brompton.
The cause of death was ascertained in 127 instances by examination
after death. The ground for inquiry in 82 cases was the
suddenness of the death. In other 43 cases the deceased had
been found dead in bed or otherwise. Forty deaths were due to
violence, 11 being suicidal, viz., 2 by poisoning with carbolic
acid (females aged 19 and 54), pistol shot 2, cut-throat 2,
hanging 3, run over by train I, drowning 1. The violent (accidental)
deaths were 29 in number, viz ,by suffocation (infants) 9, falls
6, run over 3, crushed (by fall of earth, and by a horse) 2, injuries
to head 3, burns 2, choked 1, poisoned by narcotic (how or by
whom unknown) one infant of two months, starved 1, (manslaughter),
wilful murder 1. Of the remaining 124 cases, with the
exception of a few in which the verdict was of a somewhat
indefinite character, the deaths were due to visceral diseases ; including
41 cases of brain diseases, (apoplexy, convulsions, epilepsy,
&c.) ; lung diseases 20, heart diseases 29, scrofulous diseases 5,
stomach and kidney diseases 3 each, spasm of glottis 7,
diarrhoea 4, &c. Eighty nine of the deceased were males and 77
females. Sixty-six were infants one year old and under.
Among the cases included under the general headings "sudden"
and " found dead," very many were deaths from diseases of the
most ordinary type, which any medical man would have recognised.
It is fair to infer therefore, that the deceased had been neglected,
that no medical man had been called in, although the illnesses must
have been attended with symptoms of a more or less serious and
painful character. An inquest would have been unnecessary in
every such case but for the fact that no medical certificate of the
cause of death was forthcoming. I have always felt that the mere
return of the cause of death by the jury in the coroner's court
scarcely meets the necessities of justice, regarding, as I do, the
death of a person at any age from acute maladies like pneumonia,
or bronchitis, &c., when there has been no medical attendance,
as a prima facie evidence of neglect as much calling for a verdict
of manslaughter as the distinct refusal of one of the " peculiar
people '' to call in medical aid in sickness. A Kensington jury has
taken this view in one case that occurred during the current year.
A boy died from small pox, and the woman in whose charge he
had been placed having failed to obtain medical advice a verdict of
manslaughter was returned at the inquest held on the body of the
child. It is true that the Grand Jury ignored the bill on the graver