The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-10-24
ODD ACCIDENTS.
STRANGE RECORDS OF FATAL
tiles AND CASUALTIES.
What an Examination of the Vital
Statistics Issued by the New
York Board of Health
Discloses.

luR tut Nltui ttutiotiNn 1ho
pared by the Board of Health. These
extend back for many years. Formerly
they were printed annually. In 1880,
however, there came n break in the
publication, and it was not until re-
Gently that the omitted years were put
into type, and the valuable records
carried forward to 1892.
In glancing over the tables one finds
many features of interest. II is re-
markable fact, for instance, that homi-
cides in the city nre not only rela-
lively but actually on the decrease.
In 1892 but thirty-eight persons came
TO homicidal deaths. This is but 2. 80
persons to the 100000, the lowest
ratio ever known. The proportion
has been as high rs 7.44 to the 100,
900. This was in 1873, when seventy
three persons we're murdered during
the year. The lowest actual number
of deaths in twenty-four years was in
1869, when thirty-seven persons were
killed. The ratio at that time per
100, 900 of population was Alb.
Turning from this record OF de-
creased murders, which, oddly
enough, comedies with the introduc-
tion of electrocution, one is Mortified
to learn that deaths from accident and
negligence are increasing steadily.
In 1891 they numbered 1897; in 1892
they had risen to 1900, an increase of
35l. The total deaths are subdivided
and classified with great care.
According to the subdivision the
greatest cause of fatality from acci-
dents are fractures and contusions
| OF these in 1892 there were S35. The
other causes follow in this order (:
Sunstrokes, 800; drowning, 1877 f;
burns and scalds, 179; surgical opera
tions, 151; suffocation, ninety nine +;
wounds, fifty-six; poison, fifty-six ;
other causes, seventeen. As against the
increase in accidental deaths it is inter-
esting to note that the number of sui
cides is decreasing, or, at least, re-
mains about stationary. In 1892, 241
persons took their own lives, as
against 800 in 1891 and 239 in 1890.
Suicides still prefer pistols as O
means of terminating their real OF
fancied troubles. Eighty-fve selected
this medium of death during the yeai
mentioned. Fifty-two poisoned them.
selves, fifty-one resorted to hanging,
seventeen stabbed themselves, and 9
like number leaped from elevated
places; eleven used illuminating gas
four resorted to drowning, and fiv,
chose methods not specified, but Just
as effectual.
Included in the report is summary
Of deaths from accident from 1870 tc
1892, both inclusive. According to
this there have been some strange ac
cidents in the city during the past
twenty-five years. Persons who have
been drowned, for instance, do not ali
meet their fate in the river or bay.
One met death in a barrel of water,
thirteen by falling into boilers, one by
the bursting of a sewer pipe while in q
cellar, three in cisterns, one in flooded
culvert, eleven babies in pals of water,
twenty-seven children and others in
tubs, and three men in vats.
The record of deaths from falls is
even more varied than the drowning
accidents. Three men, for instance,
have fallen from church steeples with
in the period mentioned, and me,
death. Falls from the Brooklyn Bridge
have contributed seven to the total Of
such casualties, which are almos,
numberless. One man died from slip
ping on an orange peel and falling
one while performing the "leap fol
life, one by falling from stills, an
other while stopping a runaway and
two by falling from swings.
One man died from a fracture by the
bursting of grindstone, and one by
the bursting OF wheel; one by an ex
plosion of fireworks, four by the burst
ing of kegs of ale, one by the explosion
of mineral water siphon, one by thu
explosion of soda water fountain
and one by the bursting of the water
back of range. Five persons died o
fracturesreceiyed by the fall of plaster
ing from ceilings, one from injuries re
ceived while boxing, one by being hi
by a SNOWFALL and one by being strucl
in the chest by baseball. One CIR
| oiSu iioih i"iiiHS Wuiie jumping rope
Among the deaths due to suffocatioi
one was caused by swallowing artifi
cial teeth, four by beans becomin.
lodged in the larynx, three by bee
clothing, three by bones in.the bron
chus, three by buttons in the pharynx
one by grain in grain car, one b,
swallowing the head of walking
stick, one in bin of bran, two in bin
of malt, one in a diving bell, one il
the cassion of the Brooklyn Bridg
and one in a manger OF hay. The mos
common cause of deaths by suffoca
tion is due to smoke at fires and tn
Judgement OF food in the trachea.
A person would scarcely look for
fatal accident due to mosquito bite
yet among the records of deaths du
to wounds one is credited to such
cause. The bite of boar has resulted
fatally in one case, that of rat in an
other, and that of cat in still anoth
er instance. Two deaths are attrib
lted to wounds received from tn,
bites of horses. Three persons hav,
| died from cutting corns two from