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6
40 have been cases of epidemic diseases, and in the house which is situated so
close to the public water closet, there hare been 10 cases of fever, the greater
number of which were removed to the "Workhouse.
As may be anticipated, from the occurrence of so large a mortality from
epidemic diseases, (particularly from Scarlet-fever and Small-pox,) there has
been a very large number of deaths of children under 5 years of age. During the
previous quarter the proportion of deaths of young children under 5 years to the
total mortality in the district was 40 per cent.; whereas during this quarter, the
proportion is 43.6 per cent. In the Whitechapel North Sub-district, the deaths
of children under 5 years of age are in the proportion to the total deaths of 60
per cent.
During this quarter the deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs
have been 87. The tubercular class of diseases has been fatal to 98, of which
number 59 died of Consumption, 4 from Scrofula, 9 from Hydrocephalus (water
on the brain), and 26 from mesenteric disease; 32 died from the effects of violence,
5 destroyed themselves, one of them by inflicting wounds on the throat, 2 by
hanging, one by taking poison, and one by throwing himself out of window.
The death of a child 4 months old is recorded to have been occasioncd by
Erysipelas after vaccination.
The number of deaths uncertified by a Medical Practitioner has been
5. One of these uncertified deaths was that of a child aged 3 years, the son of a
Captain in the Merchant Service, and the death is recorded in classical terms as .
being caused by "Scarlatina Malignaand three are said to have been occasioned
by Convulsions, and one is thus recorded "Tuierculers."!
The number of inquests has been 69. In the records of these inquests it is
stated that the death of a child 4 years of age was occasioned by a bean getting
into the windpipe. The following deaths are also recorded, viz., five by suicide,
one from the effects of blows at a prize fight at Hackney, one from the effects of
excessive drinking, one from a fall, the deceased having trod upon a piece of
orange peel on the pavement, one, a labourer's wife aged 28, from "burns through
wearing crinoline," one, a child newly born, from violence wilfully inflicted;
three children aged respectively 6 weeks, 6 weeks, and 9 weeks, from suffocation in
bed, the last of which occurred at night "whilst the parents were under
the influence of drink"; one, a female aged 37 from "Eupture of the Bladder
from Natural Causes," one from syncope from too great use of opium, one, a boy
aged 9 years, " from eating largely of raw sugar cane, and disease of the kidneys
from suppressed Scarlatina"; one from suffocation from a piece of meat sticking
in his throat; and one, a child aged 6 months, from the effects of violence, the
mother while in a state of insanity having thrown the child out of the window.
An inquest was not held on the body of a child aged 5 years whose death
occurred from the effects of burns received 10 weeks since.
The deaths in the "Workhouse have been 70 against 120 for the corresponding
quarter of the previous year. Of these deaths, there were 2 from Smallpox,
one from Measles, and 11 from Fever.
The Medical Officers of the Union attended 3462 new cases of sickness,
including 100 of Small-pox, 26 of Measles, 80 of Scarlet-fever, 66 of Hooping
cough, 167 of Diarrhoea, and 123 of Fever. Of the Small-pox cases 56 had been
previously vaccinated, 29 had not been vaccinated, and of the remaining 15 cases
there is no record as regards vaccination.