The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-09 00:00:00

THAMES.

THREE ATTEMPTED SIIICIDES.—LAMENTABLE CASES.
—John Kerry, a labourer, of No. 18, Henry-street, Brom-
ley, apparently about 45 or 46 years of age, Ellen Santry,
a drunken woman, of No. 6, Plough-street, Whitechapel
and Arabella Ingram, wore severally charged with attempt-
ing to commit suicide.
Mr. D. 11. Wyte, surgeon of the London Hospital, at-
tended to give evidence, but Mr. Woolrych, the magistrate,
said that he had received a letter bearing upon each case
from the chaplain of the prison, in which he set forth that,
the three prisoners were penitent and appeared to regret
the rash acts they had made to hurrythemselves into eternity
One of them had a contused wound on the head, and a
heavy hammer and pair of scissors by his side, and he had
a severe gash in his throat. Arabella Ingram, it appeared,'
had gone to six different chemists' shops and bought as
many pennyworths of laudanum, which she drank, and
then squatted herself upon a heap of bricks, where she was
, 255 K, and she was
. Ellen Santry, it ap-
in the water near the
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o t
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swing bridge of the docks.
The magistrate having severely lectured the three pri-
soners upon their folly, and they having promised never to
repeat the same again, they were discharged.

LAMBETH-BRIDGE.—The readjustment of the
cable and saddle of this structure, which recently slipped,
is now nearly completed: and the bridge, it is expected, will
be opened for traffic at the comreenoemen..f next months

INFAN7ICIDE IN THE METROPOLIS.

At an inquest held in Islington yesterday Dr.
Lankester, one of the coroners for Middlesex, took
occasion to make some remarks on the very large
number of cases of infanticide which occur in the
metropolis, and on the failure of justice in instances
where there is too much reason to suspect that
actual murder has been committed. The inquiry
at which the Coroner was presiding was one into
the circumstances connected with the death of a
newly born male child, whose body was found on
Thursday last in a mews at the rear of Compton-
terrace, Islington. Police-constable 270 N deposed
that the dead body of the child, wrapped up in
some wool, had been found by a little girl. The
constable knew no more about the matter; and, in
reply to Dr. Lankester, he stated that he had not
made any inquiries on the subject in the neighbour-
hood of the place in which the child had been dis-
covered. The Coroner said he supposed the police
thought the finding of the dead body of a newly
born infant too ordinary an occurrence to call for
inquiry. Dr. Stamford, the medical gentleman
who had made the post mortenz examination, gave
his opinion that the child was born alive, and that
it had been three or four days dead when found.
The umbilical cord was tied, but not in a skilful
manner. The child had been a weak one, and
he was not prepared to say that death had not
taken place from natural causes. That was all
the evidence on the subject. Dr. Lankester said
that this was one of a class of eases which
were exceedingly numerous at the present day
—much more so, he thought, than society generally
was aware of. He regretted to state that such
cases were constantly occurring in London. He
believed he held nearly one inquest a day on the
bodies of newly born infants. These children were
found under three different classes of circumstances.
First, there could be no doubt that premeditated
violence had been used—cases in which the child
had been born alive and had lived for some short
time, but in which the parents, or either of them,
had determined to get rid of it by putting it to
death. In such instances juries had little difficulty
in finding a verdict of wilful murder, but too fre-
quently that verdict had to be against " a per son
or persons unknown." Again, there were cases in
which there was no evidence of violence, but in
which it would appear that the child had died
shortly after birth from causes which had occurred
during birth, or, as was perhaps the fact in the
case under consideration, in which the child had
died from natural causes, and in which, because
of illegitimacy, the mother, feeling ashamed of her
position, took advantage of the death and got rid
of the body as best she could. There was another
class of cases—that of children who had not been
born alive. He could not but'think that something
might be done to diminish the number of each of
these classes, more especially that of actual child
murder. It appeared to him that if more vigour
were shown in the matter by the police
authorities—if. thera were more activity in en-
deavouring to find out the guilty parties—more
discoveries of the perpetrators would be the
result. Punishment would have a salutary
effect in the way of prevention. It was a criminal
offence to conceal the birth of a child; and, if re-
wards were offered for the apprehension of those
who committed it, much good might be the result.
A juror observed that parishes had in some cases
offered as large a reward as 1.:50. Dr. Lankester
thought that there ought to be a reward in every
case. The English public expressed their horror
at infanticide when it was brought under their
notice. They were not aware that the finding of
the body of a dead child was of so common an oc-
currence in London that there were instances of it
every day. So common was it that the police
seemed to think no more of finding a dead child
than they did of finding a dead cat or a dead dog.
This was a blot on our civilization, and vigorous
measures ought to be adopted with the view of re-
moving so great an evil. In the case under consi-
deration the jury returned a verdict of "Found
Dead."