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99
deaths; Debility, Atrophy, Inanition, 122, (all but two under
five years, and 108 under one year) ; Mortification, 7 ; Abscess,
1; Hemorrhage, 4; Causes not specified or ill-defined, 19.
DEATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The only "large public institution" within the parish in
which we are directly interested is the Parish Infirmary and
Workhouse, situated in the Town sub-district. There are several
minor public, or gwasi-public, institutions ; but, with one exception,
they do not furnish occasion for special notice. The excepted
institution is St. Joseph's House, Portobello Road, Notting Hill
—a Roman Catholic Home for aged poor persons of both sexes,
brought from various parts, largely from Ireland; but the
Registrar-General does not class it as a "public institution."
The deaths of non-parishioners at the Marylebone Infirmary,
Notting Hill (404), and at the Brompton Consumption Hospital
(130), are excluded from our statistics, but will furnish occasion
for a few remarks later on. The deaths of parishioners registered
at the Parish Infirmary and Workhouse (417), at the Brompton
Consumption Hospital (4), and at outlying institutions (183),
were 604, or 21'9 per cent, on total deaths, the percentage proportion
of deaths in public institutions in the Metropolis generally
being 20"7.
The Parish Infirmary and Workhouse.—I am indebted
to Mr. H. Percy Potter, Medical Superintendent to the Infirmary,
and Medical Officer to the Workhouse, for the statistics of
mortality at these important institutions, the former being, to
all intents and purposes, as indeed its name implies, a hospital;
it contains over six hundred beds. The deaths registered at these
institutions in 1886 were 417, compared with 273, 307, 322, 273
and 355 in the five previous years, and were equal to 15'0 percent.
on total deaths. Mr. Potter informs me that the actual
deaths in the year were 410, the quarterly numbers being 140,
81, 102 and 87 ; so that 227 deaths occurred in the first and
fourth (or cold) quarters, and 183 in the second and third (or