View report page

4
for; but as there are very many of the poor, particularly among those who reside on the south
side of the district, who are confined without their having any assistance, either from a medical
man or from a Midwife, the Relieving Officers in such cases accept the certificate of any friend cr
neighbour, who, out of sympathy or charity rendered assistance to a lying-in woman ; no
further enquiries are made, and the child is buried at the expense of the union. The number
of still-born children interred at the public expense in this district during the last 12 months,
was 73, or 2.5 per cent. of the total births (2839.) This number is irrespective of
those buried at the expense of private individuals, of those which may have been surreptitiously
buried in the same coffins with adults, and of those made away with by
persons calling themselves midwives ; so that we need not feel surprised if it should be subsequently
proved, that infanticide is more frequent, than the records of onr police courts at
present indicate. The proportion of still to living births is estimated at about 7 or 8 per cent.
This does not include abortions before quickening.
Whether or not, however, direct child-murder be of frequent occurrence, there is no
doubt that indirect infanticide is extensively practised, for it is well known that numerous
young children, particularly the illegitimate, are put out to nurse at the earliest possible
period, at a very small weekly payment, and they soon cease to exist. The use of narcotic
drugs, improper and unwholesome food, and the exposure to cold without sufficient clothing,
are the agents in continual operation, which shorten infant life. In addition to these agencies,
there is the prevalence of superstition or fatalism among the uneducated classes, which
operates so powerfully on the minds of some parents, that they will not seek for medical
attendance on the appearance of illness in a child, believing that sickness is an event, over
which professional skill has no controul, and is therefore unnecessary.
It appears from the last annual report of the Registrar General, that in this district, one
birth in 21, or 4.7 per cent. is illegitimate, and in the whole of England, the proportion is one
in 15, or 6.6 per cent.; but as many of the illegitimate births are not registered, these proportions
cannot be accurately depended upon. I may here, perhaps, be permitted to observe that the
extent of the immorality of a district is not to be estimated only by the number of illegitimate
births in it.
The causes of death, and the number of persons to whom each disease has proved fatal
will be seen on referring to the Mortality Table in the Appendix. The disease next in fatality
to diarrhoea, (which I have previously stated proved fatal to 114) is consumption. It numbers
76 victims, nearly the half of whom (35) died in the district of Mile End New Town. Fever
proved fatal to 28*, small-pox to 16+, scarlet fever to 27, measles to 8, and hooping-cough to
3. Two cases of death occurred in the second week of July, from the heat of the sun. In one
of these cases (a sugar-baker, aged 34), an inquest was holden at the London Hospital; in the
other, (also a sugar-baker, aged 32, whose death occurred in Great Alie Street) an inquest
was not deemed necessary. Two persons came by their deaths while in a state of intoxication,
one from the effects of a burn, the other from a fall down stairs. Delirium tremens, a disease
caused by the excessive use of intoxicating drinks was fatal in three instances. Five deaths,
* Four of the deaths from fever were of persons non-resident in the district, and they occurred in the
London Hospital.
† The number of cases and deaths in the Small-Pox Hospital of those who belong to this district, I have
not yet obtained.