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58
"there was nothing to prove that the cases were caused by had.
drainage, there was much in their character to suggest the suspicion
that their course was modified by sewer gas." The house was carefully
inspected, but without revealing any adequate ground for the abovementioned
suspicion.
DEATHS AT PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The "large public institutions" are the Parish Infirmary and
Workhouse in the Town sub-district and the Hospital for Consumption
and Diseases of the Chest at Brompton. There are numerous
minor public or quasi-public institutions, such as the Barracks,
"homes," schools, nurseries, &c., but, with one exception, they do not
furnish occasion for notice here. The exception is St. Joseph's House,
Portobello Eoad, Notting Hill— a Eoman Catholic home for some 250
aged poor persons of both sexes, most of whom, wherever they may
have come from, have resided in the home long enough to acquire the
status of parishioners. The Marylebone Infirmary for the sick poor
chargeable to the rates of that parish, is approaching completion, and
may be expected to figure among our large public institutions next
year. The deaths registered at the Workhouse, the Brompton Hospital,
and the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylum District Board, were
424, or 13.3 per cent, on total deaths, the percentage proportion of
deaths in public institutions in the Metropolis generally being 18.5.
The Parish Infirmary and Workhouse.— I am indebted to
Dr. Whitmore, Medical Superintendent of the Infirmary and Medical
Officer of the Workhouse, for the statistics of the mortality at these
institutions. The deaths were 287, males 149 and females 138, (as
against 284 in 1878), or 10 per cent, of all deaths registered in the
parish. The numbers in the four quarters respectively were 100: 67:
44 and 76:— 176 in the cold and 111 in the warm half of the year. The
ages at death were as follows:— Under 1 year, 31; between 1 and
60, 125; 60 and upwards, 131. Between 60 and 70 the deaths were
51; between 70 and 80, 62; between 80 and 90, 14. There were
4 deaths, two of males and two of females, from "old age," at 90,
96, 97, and 98 years respectively. Three inquests were held, viz.,
on a female, aged 30, verdict, "Fall on pavement"; on a female, aged
56, verdict, Phthisis; and on a female, aged 68, verdict, "Drowned