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5
The 53 inquests which have been held upon persons dying in your district
during the last three months, do not call for many observations.
One of them, however, is rather remarkable, inasmuch as no post-mortem
examination appears to have been instituted. The case was that of a youug woman,
aged 17, wife of a surgeon, in the Goodman's Fields Registration District, and is thus
recorded " found dead on the floor, apparently from natural causes." Another case,
is that of a young man, aged 26, who was accidently crushed by a fall of three boxes
of sugar, in consequence of the breaking of the chain which secured them. The
place where this accident occurred is not given. This is the second death which has
been recorded in your district during the past year, from the same cause, and the
melancholy fact calls loudly upon the proprietors of warehouses, where cranes are
used for unloading heavy goods, to see that the machinery, in all its parts, is in a
perfectly sound state.
The six cases of burns and scalds recorded during the past quarter, are all in
consequence of the clothing of the parties catching fire.
Forty-six persons in the district, during the past year, reached the advanced
age of 80 and upwards, 3 of whom died at 90, and 1 at 91 years of age, during the
last quarter.
The mortality of children appears to vary considerably in the different subdistricts.
In the Spitalfields, out of 85 deaths, 46 are of children under 5 years of
age ; in the Aldgate, out of 65 deaths, 33 are of children under 5 ; in the Goodman's
Fields, out of 69, there are 34; in the Mile End New Town, out of 89, there
are 22 ; in the Whitechapel North, out of 128, there are 33 ; in the Artillery, out
of 27, there are 8; and in the Whitechapel Church district, out of 146 deaths, there
are only 26 of children under 5 years of age. The great difference in the relative
mortality between adults' and children in the last named registration district, is
accounted for by the mortality in the London Hospital, in which institution, very few
young children are admitted. In those districts, in which there is neither a hospital
nor workhouse, with the exception of the Artillery district, the deaths of children
under 5 years of age, are more than half of the total mortality.
On referring to the tables showing the mortality of the workhouses, it will be
observed that out of the total mortality during the past year, a sixth part was due to
zymotic diseases, but I may observe, that this forms no certain criterion of the unhealthiness
of these institutions, inasmuch as, many of the patients who die in the
workhouses, are admitted a few days only, before their death, they having suffered
from disease, in some instances, a considerable time before their admission, and their
deaths ought to be registered in the districts from which they were removed. It
must also be borne in mind, that not a single case of fever, during the past year, was
sent to the Fever Hospital, and only one case of small pox was sent to the Small Pox
Hospital. The fact, , therefore, of all the fever cases, among the most destitute of the
poor, being received into the workhouses, must tend, to a certain extent, to swell the
mortality in these institutions.
If we compare the mortality from epidemic diseases in the year 1856, with