London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Kensington 1882

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]

This page requires JavaScript

110
Blood poisoning (putrid fish) 1
Drowning 1
Falls under various circumstances 14
Burn and Scald 6
Run over by, train 2, van 1, omnibus 1, 4
Thrown from carriage 1
Knocked down by horse 1
Chloroform, Syncope while inhaling 1
Hemorrhage from neglect at birth 2
Suicide: By hanging 5
By poison 3
By cut throat 2, stab 1 3
By fall from a window 1
Wilful Murder: 1
Among the deaths described as "sudden," there were, as
usual, many of persons who had died from ordinary and curable
visceral diseases, and it is impossible to resist the conviction
that there had been culpable neglect on the part of someone, in
the failure to obtain medical assistance for the deceased ; for
the illnesses must have extended over many days, and been
attended with obvious symptoms of a more or less serious and
painful nature: there would have been no occasion for inquests,
moreover, had medical certificates been forthcoming. The mere
finding of the cause of death by a jury, in such cases, seems
scarcely to satisfy the requirements of justice, considering that
the death of any person —but particularly of one very young
or very aged—from diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis,
for instance, when there has been no medical treatment,
raises a presumption of neglect which would justify a verdict
of " manslaughter," equally as in the case of the " peculiar
people," who, whilst treating their sick with care in other respects,
refuse, on mistaken conscientious grounds, to employ
medical assistance, and who, as a consequence of such refusal,
death having ensued, have often been found guilty of manslaughter.