The Sun. — 1862-09-09 (London, England)

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 Comptonterrace, 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 neighbourhood of the place in which the child had been discovered. 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 frequently 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 endeavouring 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 rewards 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 occurrence 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 removing so great an evil. In the case under consideration the jury returned a verdict of "Found Dead."