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therefore, in this quarter, are the result of intemperance. Among the unusual causes of death,
there is recorded the death of a child, from a rupture of the internal carotid artery, during an
attack of severe scarlet fever ; and the death of a woman, on the ninth day of her confinement,
from small-pox, and in four days after, her infant child, aged 10 days, died of the same
disease.
The uncertified cases of death are 13, and are registered as follows :—5 are ascribed
to " convulsions," 1 is stated to have lived half an hour, 1 is registered as " premature,"
having lived 11 days, 2 are registered "debility", X " marasmus," aged 7 weeks, 1 " curvature
of the spine," aged 5 years, 1 "syphilis and convulsions," aged 9 weeks, and 1 "phthisis,"
aged 51. It will be observed that technical terms are used in the registration of several of
the uncertified cases of death ; but whather death was caused by the above-mentioned diseases,
I have no means of ascertaining. In uncertified cases of death, it would be safer to state that
the cause of death was unknown.
The number of inquests holden during the last quarter is 39. In several of the instances
the cause of death is not stated. For example : the verdicts in two cases are thus recorded—
" Sudden death, cause not proven." In another, " Sudden death, natural causes." In a third,
the verdict is " Sudden death, exhaustion." In none of the above-mentioned cases is there a
record of a post mortem examination having been made. If these bodies had been examined by
a surgeon, more satisfactory verdicts would have been given. The use of the terms "not
proven," by a coroner's jury, is a mis-application of that verdict which is received by the
judges in Scotland only, in criminal cases, when a conviction exists in the minds of a
j ury, of the guilt of a prisoner, but where the legal evidence is deficient. This verdict is very
properly entirely ignored in England. The death of a female, aged 65, said to have been
an opium eater, is thus recorded, " Diarrhoea, sudden." An inquest was not holden in this
case ; neither was one holden on a man, aged 43, who died from inflammation of the bowels,
consequent upon an injury to the abdomen and chest; but an inquest was deemed necessary
on the body of a female aged 50, who died of cholera, when the verdict was " Sudden death,
English cholera." At the London Hospital, an inquest was holden on the body of a person
whose death was caused by poison ; but the particular poison was not recorded by the local
Registrar. Such information might surely have been easily obtained, and recorded at the
inquest.
The number of new cases of sickness attended by the Medical Officers of the union, is
3261, which is an average of about 250 per week. Amongst these cases, are 44 of small-pox;
78 of measles; 74 of scarlet fever; 21 of hooping-cough ; 787 of diarrhœa; and 107 of fever.
The cases of illness in the workhouse are 411 ; of which, 228 were attended by Mr. Champneys,
and 183 by Mr. Richardson. There are included in the total number, 45 of diarrhoea,
23 of fever, and 4 of small-pox. In several of the cases of small-pox, which came under the
notice of the Medical Officers of the union, vaccination had not been performed ; in some, it
had been imperfectly performed; and in others, there is no record. Mr. Farr, the Clerk to the
Guardians, has again kindly furnished me with a return of the number of cases of vaccination ;
from which return it appears that out of 2972 cases successfully vaccinated during the year
that ended September 29th, 1859, there were only 755 under one year of age, or one-fourth of
the registered births. The total number successfully vaccinated exceeds the registered births
by 143. Itappears, however, that no lessthan2197 of the cases of successful vaccination were performed
on persons above one year of age. During the previous year, the number of cases