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

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Kensington 1890

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]

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119
cation. It includes the causes of 133 deaths; 104 under live
years of age and 91 under one year: 119 and 14 in the Town
and Brompton sub-districts respectively. The causes named
are: Debility, Atrophy, Inanition, 99 deaths (all but one under
five years and 86 under one year); Dropsy, 2; Mortification, 6;
Tumour, 5; Abscess, 4; and Hemorrhage, 3. To "Causes not
Specified or Ill-Defined," 14 deaths are ascribed.
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 quasi-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 (458), and at Brompton Consumption Hospital (165),
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 (392), at the Brompton Consumption
Hospital (9), and at outlying institutions, &c. (211), were
612, or 20'7 per cent. on total deaths, the percentage proportion
of deaths in public institutions in the Metropolis generally being
24.0.
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 deaths registered
in 1890 were 394, compared with 391, 352 and 328 in the three
previous years, and were equal to nearly 13.4 per cent. on total
deaths. The quarterly numbers were 137, 81, 81 and 95, so that