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The deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs were 86. The tubercular class
of diseases was fatal to 83, of which number 43 died from consumption, 4 from scrofula, 13
from Hydrocephalus (water on the brain), and 23 from mesenteric disease: 29 died from the
effects of violence, six persons destroyed themselves, one of them by inflicting wounds on the
throat, two by jumping out of window, one by hanging, one by taking poison, and one from
a wound in the groin. Two deaths were caused by privation, both at the workhouse, viz., on
the 1st March a male aged 35, "sudden death, exhaustion from want of proper necessaries;"
on 9th April a washerwoman, aged 40, "violent death, exhaustion from privation, with
Asthma."
At the London Hospital the death of a widow aged 55 years, from St. George's, is
recorded to have occurred from "mercurial salivation." Three deaths occurred from pyæmia
in this institution during the quarter. At Royal Mint-street on the 12th May, a refiner at Sir
Anthony Rothschild's works, Royal Mint-street, aged 35, "died from the effects of chloroform
administered before an operation for fistula." This death was certified by two medical practitioners.
At 4, Fieldgate-street, on 20th May, a sugar baker, aged 35 years, "died from coma
(10 hours), exhaustion from heat of sugar-house." A female, aged 24 years, died from
elephantiasis of the left leg and foot, 15 years duration. A female, aged 43, died from
catalepsy.
The number of inquests held was 58. Two of them were held on children who
were suffocated in bed, in one of these cases the verdict was "suffocation in bed by another
child laying across it." A child aged 13 weeks, in the Whitechapel north sub-district is
certified to have died a violent death from suffocation in bed. No inquest appears to have
been held on this case, while in the same sub-district an inquest was held on a child aged
8 months, who died from measles, when the verdict returned was "sudden death, suppressed
measles." A child newly bom was found in the grounds belonging to the London Hospital,
the verdict returned was "found dead!" In two cases the verdicts recorded are "sudden,
natural causes." An inquest was held on the body of a child aged 2 years, whose death was
occasioned by swallowing oil of vitrol.
On the week ending 5th April there were 20 deaths recorded in the Miie End New
Town District, but the mortality proper to this week was only 15, as five of the deaths formed
the subject of inquiry by a coroner's jury, and were not returned to the Local Registrar until
a fortnight elapsed after the deaths took place.
The deaths uncertified by a medical practitioner in this quarter amount only to 6,
while in the corresponding quarter of the previous year they were 11. The uncertified cases
of death are principally those of children, and although the number of such cases is
comparatively small, yet, from inquiry, I learn that many certificates of death are given by
medical pracitioners when they have only seen the patients once. The poor generally are
most desirous of obtaining a certificate of the cause of death of their children; they appear to
have some idea that they cannot get their children buried without a certificate of the cause of
death from a qualified medical practitioner; or they imagine that a certificate of the cause of
death will aid them in getting the club money for the burial of the child. It frequently