Cross' Family Shenanigans

[rjpalmer]

For anyone who might be interested in the debate over the alleged alcoholism of PC Thomas Cross, I posted information about Cross's brother and sister-in-law's alcoholism over on JTR Forums:

Interesting Lechmere Trivia - Jack The Ripper Forums - Ripperology For The 21st Century

Jame Cross did die of alcoholism at the age of 47, as reported in the London Daily Chronicle of 14 August 1878.

INTEMPERANCE.—Last night Mr. Humphreys held an inquest at the Hope Tavern, Holly-street, Dalston, on the body of James Cross, aged 47, a cab driver, of 16A, Temple-street, Kingsland-road. Deceased, since the loss of his wife 18 months ago, had, according to the evidence of his housekeeper, hardly ever been sober. Deceased was found dead in bed on Friday morning. Dr. Cockle said death was due to effusion on the brain, caused by drink. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

His wife had died from drink the previous year.

While some might wish to use this as indirect evidence that Thomas Cross was also an alcoholic, I don't see it that way.

It takes many years to destroy one's internal organs through alcohol abuse--even with constant drinking, James Cross lived to 47 and his wife, also a drunkard, lived into her late 50s. Modern statistics back up this trend.

PC Thomas Cross, by contrast, died of apparent kidney disease at the age of only 34.

Using statistics from modern United States (I've failed to find any from Victorian England), only about 4 people per 100,000 in PC Cross's age bracket die from alcohol-related organ failure per year. And when they do die, the organs that go first are the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and heart.

As such, death from alcohol-induced kidney failure at the young age of 34 must be very rare indeed and I find it an unlikely explanation for Cross's demise. There are more likely explanations.

Further, I doubt a raging alcoholic of that magnitude could have maintained a job as a beat constable for a decade.

[Fiver]

Again, trying to drag this into an on topic thread.

Here is a study provided by the Mayo clinic concerning the effects of regular or binge drinking on increasing one’s chances of getting chronic kidney disease.

Compared with non-drinking, regular and occasional binge drinking were associated with a 2.2-fold (95% CI, 1.38-3.46) and a 2.0-fold (95% CI, 1.33-2.98) higher risk of CKD progression, respectively. This association was particularly evident in patients who had decreased kidney function and proteinuria.

That is an inaccurate summary of the Mayo Clinic study. The study did not conclude that regular or binge drinking increased one’s chances of getting chronic kidney disease. The study did not deal with the causes of CKD at all, let alone claim that heavy drinking caused CKD.

"Conclusions - Heavy alcohol consumption was associated with faster progression of CKD."

[Fiver]

Thomas Cross most likely died from a form of kidney disease, not heart disease.

That he died from kidney failure seems irrefutable: uremia, if that designation is accurate, being the syndrome caused by the excessive buildup in blood toxins, where the kidneys are no longer able to function sufficiently to remove them. The symptoms of uremia are nausea, vomiting, weight loss, pruritus (skin conditions), seizures, convulsions, coma, etc …. Cross should have experienced some of these well before the final 3 days, which is probably when the worst of the symptoms kicked in.


What type of kidney disease did he die from? Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the gradual loss of kidney function over a long time and can result from several different conditions, like high blood pressure or diabetes, as opposed to a single specific event. Symptoms of the disease become manifest once the % of functioning kidneys drops below a threshold (25 %). You only need one functioning kidney to live, should it be healthy. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is where a single specific event leads to kidney damage, such as the ingestion of a toxin, or the incursion of an infectious disease. This form of kidney disease can lead to death, but is also often reversible. The diagnosis of fatty degeneration was the belief that the kidney disease had been developing for many years. My impression is that Cross died from chronic kidney disease …. so, what were the underlying conditions?

How about we look at what Mayo Clinic says about the actual causes of chronic kidney disease.

Diseases and conditions that cause chronic kidney disease include:

• Type 1 or type 2 diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Glomerulonephritis (gloe-mer-u-low-nuh-FRY-tis), an inflammation of the kidney's filtering units (glomeruli)
• Interstitial nephritis (in-tur-STISH-ul nuh-FRY-tis), an inflammation of the kidney's tubules and surrounding structures
• Polycystic kidney disease or other inherited kidney diseases
• Prolonged obstruction of the urinary tract, from conditions such as enlarged prostate, kidney stones and some cancers
• Vesicoureteral (ves-ih-koe-yoo-REE-tur-ul) reflux, a condition that causes urine to back up into your kidneys
• Recurrent kidney infection, also called pyelonephritis (pie-uh-low-nuh-FRY-tis)

Note complete absence of alcoholism from the list.

[John Wheat]

The Lechmereians are getting more and more desperate. The quest to frame Cross is ridiculous.