The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-04 00:00:00

INFANTILE MORTALITY

Yesterday Mr. Wakley and a highly respectable
jury, composed of inhabitant householders of the
neighbourhood, assembled at the Elephant and
Castle, Camden-town, to investigate the circum-
stances attending the death of a female child who
was alleged to have died from violence, after' being
certified as "still. born.",
The investigation was of a highly important
character, in connexion with the recent startling
disclosures respecting the mysterious and suspicious
disposal of the bodies of children under the deno.
ruination of "still born," and the greatest interest
therefore attached to the proceedings. The body
when viewed by the jury exhibited all the appear-
ance of a finely-developed healthy child, and was
much above the ordinary size of newly-horn infants.
Mary Anne Culverhouse, the first witness called,
deposed that she was a professional nurse, and
resided in the Bagnigge-wells-road. She was pre-
sent at the deceased child's birth on Sunday, the
25th ult. • The mother's name was Maria Williams.
She was a married woman, and the wife of a smith.
The child was born at a quarter past twelve in the
afternoon, and Mr. Wicker, a medical gentleman,
was in attendance at the time. She (witness) was
certain the child never breathed in this world.
When born it was dead. Mr. Wicker took the
child from the mother. After the birth everything
was done to make the child breathe, but there was
not the slightest sign of life. No instruments were
used throughout the confinement.
Mr. W. T. Coster, resident medical officer at
St. Pancras workhouse, deposed that he made an
examination of the body on Thursday last in the pre-
sence of Dr. Hillier, medical officer of health for the
parish. The body was that of a child eight pounds
in weight, or a little more, and well nourished.
The average weight of new-born children was six
pounds and a half. The head appeared to have
been bruised, and on removing the scalp, he found
an effusion of blood over the skull. The left
parietal bone had been indented and fractured.
(Mr. Coster produced the portion of skull alluded to,
which was greatly indented as by external violence.)
There was likewise an extravasation of blood
between the skull and the dura mater, but no ap-
pearance of extravasation beneath the latter. On
examining the chest, he found the lungs inflated,
the heart and thymus gland floated together in
water, and there was little or no decomposition.
He used pressure on the lungs, but they would
not sink, and they were, in fact, inflated to the
margins.
Coroner—Was he certain that the air in the lungs
was not produced by decomposition ?
Witness—Yes ; for the only evidence of decom-
position about the body was a blueness about the
lips.

Examination resumed--The heart, the lungs, the
stomach, and all the organs of the body appeared
natural. He saw nothing abnormal whatever. The
umbilical cord had. been tied. He believed the
child had breathed. That was certain ; but he
could not say if it breathed before or when entirely
separated from the mother.
Coroner—Was he in a position to state the cause
of the death ?
He should say the injury to the head would be
incompatible with its living. The injury to the
head, with other causes, perhaps might be the cause
of death.
Coroner—The injury to its head was sufficient to
produce death ?
Witness—Yes.
Cross-examined—The child had breathed no
doubt, but the law sets down that a child to be born
alive must have a separate existence from the mo-
ther. It was possible for the injury to the skull to
be caused in the mother's delivery, but he could not
say how it was really produced.
Mr. James Wicker, Registered General Practi-
tioner, of 25, Argyle-square, who attended the
mother in her confinement, and subsequently certi-
fied to the child's being " still born," was next
called, and after describing the labour as an exceed-
ingly tedious and protracted one, he said that the
child's head was born a quarter of an hour before
its shoulders, and when it was at length fully born
it was as inanimate as stone. He tried the Mar-
shall Hall system for resuscitating the child,but there
was no appearance of life, and it was as " still born"
as any child ever was.
Coroner—He (Mr. Wicker) had heard the evi-
dence of Mr. Coster as to the breathing ; had he
reason now to doubt that the child had breathed?
Witness—He (the Coroner) was aware, and in-
deed Professor. Taylor, in his Medical furisprudence,
one of the best authorities in the matter, stated the
fact, that one inspiration in the course of birth
would inflate the lungs.
Coroner—Quite so. One or two inspirations
were'sufficient to do so, but how did he account for
the fracture ?

The witness replied he could not account for it.
Coroner—lt was evidently occasioned during life,
from the appearance of extravasation of blood
between the dura mater and the skull. He (Mr.
Wicker) had said that the mother was at times very.
violent. Did he think in her agony she could her-
self have made the indentation--say with her
thumb ?

Witness—lt was before the head was born that
she was violent. She did not move about after-
wards. lie could therefore in no way account for
the violence about the head.
After some further remarks,
The Coroner observed that the case was a very
curious one, and the question respecting the mode
of certifying is cases of still-born children had lat-
terly, he was glad to see, attracted public attention
and it yet demanded a great deal more. No one
acquainted with Mr. Wicker's position would, in
the present case, suppose anything wrong on his
part; but that gentleman, knowing, as he did, the
awful destruction of infant life that was now too fre-
quent, would, he (the Coroner) felt sure, be con-
vinced that too many inquests could not be held,
and that the most searching inquiries were de-
manded. Indeed, the destruction of infant life in
the metropolis was truly awful to contemplate.
Now in that case there was a fine child, much above
the ordinary size, certified as "still born." The
skin bad the decided appearance of death from
asphyxia, and the question had arisen—Was the
child still born or not ? It was quite evident the
child had breathed, either after birth or during de-
livery, and a fracture was discovered that was not
known to the medical gentleman in attendance. Mr.
Wicker could not complain under the circumstances,
at the inquiry being held. That gentleman had given
his evidence, and stated that the child did not
breathe after the birth, and every one would there-
fore be satisfied on that point ; but that it did
breathe during its passage into the world no one
could deny after hearing Mr. Coster's evidence.
Now he would ask Mr. Wicker to give his opinion
as to the cause of the death—was the child suffo-
cated in its passage into the world, or did it die
from the effects of the injury described, and if from
the injury, how was that caused ?
Mr. Wicker said, in reply, that when he left the
room, after the delivery, he did so with the firm
conviction that it was a stillborn child. He had
no idea at that time that its head was injured. He
used no instruments, and no unusual force incon-
sistent with an ordinary delivery. He did not
hand the child over to the nurse, so that she could
not have let it fall, but it lay on the bed all the
time.

The Coroner then, in summing up, remarked
that there could be no doubt but that the child's
death arose from the violence on the head, which
must, after the evidence of Mr. Wicker, have been
caused by some means accidentally. It was a great
matter for the jury to be satisfied in such cases that
it was not the criminal act of any person, for the
difficulties in determining the cause of death ap-
peared almost insurmountable, and he was sorry to
think of the number of lives that might be wilfully
destroyed without the means of the guilty party be-
ing detected. He had no doubt hundreds of lives
were so sacrificed every year. The Coroner then ex-
plained the means by which children could be easily
destroyed and rendered " still-born," even to the eye
of an experienced anatomist, without the real truth
being elicited that they were wilfully murdered,
and, he added, it was a dreadful thing to consider
that children might be so disposed of without their
being able to prove anything in the case. There-
fore he considered it behoved them to hold the most
searching investigations, in order to try and pre-
vent a wholesale destruction of infantile life and to
protect the poor little creatures. The Coroner
further, in conclusion, said, that in that case he
believed the jury could come to no other conclusion
but if the child died from the violence that it was
purely accidental and no one was to blame.
The Jury concurred with the Coroner, and at
once recorded a verdict of accidental death.
The Coroner, at the conclusion of the case,
added that the statute which was now sup-
posed to give a protection to infants was no
p3l, sec. 14, the words of the act were as rotection in reality at all. By the 9th George IV.,
chap.
fol-
lows :—"
Be it enacted that if any woman shall be
delivered of a child, and shall, by secret burying or
disposing of the dead body of the said
conceal the birth thereof, every
endeavour
child, otherwise to co

such offender shall be guilty, of a misdemeanour,
and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be
imprisoned, with or without hard labour, in the
common gaol or house of correction for any term
not exceeding two years ; and it shall not be neces-
sary to prove whether the child died before, at, or
after its birth." There was no protection in this
for the life rf the child; and he thought this could
be only gained by the woman being required to
have some person present at the moment of de-
livery: The present state of .the law did not pro-
tect infant life, and something ought to be done at
once by the Legislature.
The proceedings then terminated.