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115
1911
TUBERCULOSIS.
Pulmonary Phthisis, Tabes Mesenterica, Tuberculous Meningitis, Tuberculosis
of the Larynx, General Tuberculosis and other forms of Tuberculosis, such as
Lupus, Tuberculous Caries, and Pott's Disease.
These diseases are all included under the general term—tuberculosis; and
together they contributed 512 deaths to the general mortality of the year.
They were equal to a death-rate of 1.56 per 1,000 of the population. These
figures show a decrease, when compared with the average of the preceding ten
years, of 104 deaths, and of 0.29 per 1,000 in the death-rate. They are,
therefore, so far satisfactory.

The general tendency of these figures is to decrease; for in only two
years have the deaths exceeded those of the year immediately preceding
them. The decreased mortality was common to males and females, for the
deaths of the former numbered 294, as compared with a decennial average of
357, a decrease of 63, and of the latter 218 as against an average of 259, a
decrease of 41.
It may be said that these decreases are small. This is true; but then it
must be recollected that they are due almost solely to the general improvement
which has taken place in the conditions amidst which the people live, and not to
any direct attack on the special causes which so much contribute to the spread
of the tubercle bacilli. Thus little or nothing has been done to prevent the
sale of tuberculous milk, to disinfect rooms occupied, or recently vacated, by
tuberculous persons, to prevent promiscuous spitting, to bring light and clean
air into the homes of the attacked, to teach them how they may best avoid
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