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count, and that no evidence was tendered on the minor count of
misdemeanour, so that the woman escaped any legal penalty for
neglect. It cannot be doubted, however, that the moral effect of
the course adopted by the jury will be good; and it may be fairly
held that similar neglect to call in medical assistance in cases of
more ordinary diseases should be regarded in quite as serious a
light.
I have only to add that the deaths registered on the information
of the coroner were 5.7 per cent. of the total deaths in
Kensington, the proportionate per centage in all London being 6.8.
The deaths by violence were 1.7 per cent. of all deaths in the
parish, and 3'7 per cent. in all London.
DEATHS "NOT CERTIFIED."
There is no sign of diminution in the number of uncertified
deaths, i.e., deaths of persons who had been attended in the last
illness by unregistered, i.e., unqualified practitioners of medicine.
The number in 1876 was 33, (1.1 per cent. on total deaths); twentythree
of them occurred in one man's "practice," and nine in another.
Besides these admitted cases there were others in which a registered
practitioner was called in at the last gasp with a view to the
certificate. It appears to be a not uncommon thing for unqualified
practitioners to retain the services of properly qualified
men with a direct view to certification. Altogether the present
state of the question is highly unsatisfactory, and it will be so until
it is made somebody's business to protect the public from imposture.
I use this hard word advisedly, because I am satisfied
that many persons employ unregistered practitioners in total
ignorance of their disqualification. I brought the subject very
prominently forward a few months ago, and suggested means for
putting an end to an admitted evil, but your Vestry, acting under
the advice of the Law Committee, (themselves fully impressed
with the gravity of the subject) decided that it would be
ultra vires to prosecute offenders. It is to be hoped that ere long
the duty of prosecuting in such cases will be rendered obligatory
on some authority, and I cannot imagine a better authority than
that which administers the Sanitary laws, whether it be a vestry,
a corporation, or a board of guardians. Cases that have been
decided in the High Court of Justice, on appeal, have done much
to settle the law of the subject, and have swept away many of the
legal cobwebs, with which both stipendiary and unpaid magistrates
had obscured it; and there is little difficulty now in obtaining a
conviction. A society of qualified medical men, instituted for
the purpose, has prosecuted numerous offenders with success ;
but while we must feel that the members have thereby conferred a
great service on the community, it must be admitted that their
proceedings expose them to misconstruction. In a matter