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16
At 31, Colonnade, on December 18th, 1861, the wife of a porter, aged
37, died of " exhaustion from drink," not certified.
At 57, Dudley Street, on February 24th, 1862, a portmanteau maker,
aged 50, died of " pain in the stomach not certified.
At 11, Little Saint Andrew's Street, on May 21st, 1862, the son of a
hatter, aged 3 months, died of " consumption;" not certified.
At 22, Little Earl Street, on June 8th, a domestic servant, aged 25 years,
died of " pain in the bowels;" not certified.
At 1, Little Wild Street, on June 15th, a woman aged 21, occupation and
cause of death " unknown;" no medical attendant.
At 31, Dudley Street, on September 29th, the daughter of a tailor, aged
9 weeks, died of " convulsions;" not certified.
It is intolerable in a civilized country parading its respect for human
life that persons dying in this way should be interred without any scruple
or enquiry. In at least two of these cases there is prima facie ground for
suspecting poison. Again, there were no fewer than 20 infanta, under a week
old, whose deaths were registered in 1862, as occurring from "premature
birth," "convulsions," and so forth, without a particle of medical evidence ot
the cause.
"The Alarming Increase of Infanticide" that we read of daily in the papers
is encouraged by nothing so much as by the scandalous facility with which
burial certificates may be obtained in the present state of the law.
Furthermore, if the law is careless as to the manner in which people die,
it is not surprising that there is carelessness in obeying its scanty provisions
relating to the registration of death. In February, l862, the Registrar of
Bloomsbury received information that on the 24th of the preceding December
a man aged 36, a domestic servant, had died at 3, Bedford Square; that he was
removed from the house to the undertaker's immediately after death, and was
buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Kensal Green. No notice had ever
been sent to the Registrar (as required by law) of the burial without his
certificate. The informant, one of the deceased's fellow servants, could not
state the cause of death, and did not know what had become of the medical
certificate. Similar cases to this have occurred in former years.
There is another class of Deaths, where the deceased has been seen by a
medical practitioner, that equally require an investigation into the cause of
death. Nine persons were certified in 1862 to have died of an "unknown"
cause, the object of the surgeon who certified being (probably in all instances)
that further enquiry should be made.
Eight out of these nine deaths are entered on the registers of the Workhouse
as follows :—
Jan. 25. A man, aged 65, "dying when admitted;" certified.
Feb. 11. A woman, aged 29, "dying when admitted;" certified.
Mar. 22. A child, aged 4 months, "found dead;" certified.
April 7. A woman, aged 58, "unknown;" certified.
July 2. An infant, aged 4 days, "asphyxia, found dead;" certified.
Sept. 26. A woman, aged 03, " dying when admitted;" certified.
Oct. 3. An infant, aged 3 weeks, "died in the street;" certified.
Dec. 17. A man, aged 60, " dying when admitted;" certified.
Every one of these deaths was however registered, a certificate for burial
given, and the body interred. Now in every one of these cases the law
should have provided for information being sent to the Coroner, and none of
these bodies should have been buried without his warrant. Whenever a Registrar