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This record is valuable, inasmuch as it affords the only available
means of viewing the mortality in relation to sickness, and of so
becoming acquainted with the lesser fluctuations of health not
indicated by the death register. By the latter we are informed of
how many persons die in a given number of the population, but we
do not by such means become aware of how much or how little
sickness those deaths resulted from—of, in other words, the intensity
of disease. It need scarcely be observed that there is no means of
ascertaining the total amount of disease which has prevailed
throughout the parish; but an approximate estimate both of its
intensity and amount can be formed from that portion, with its
resulting mortality, which has occurred amongst the poor, and which
is accurately known.
By a reference to the table it is seen that the number of cases of
sickness were 1,371, the corrected average for the previous six
years being 1,439. The deaths numbered 35, or about 2½ (2.55)
per cent. the average of the previous six years being 3 per cent.,
nearly 2.93. There were 394 cases of epidemic disease, forming
28.7 per cent. of all cases of sickness; the deaths from these diseases,
which were somewhat less than the average, numbered 10, a mortality
not greater than that resulting from all diseases collectively.
From these figures it is gathered that the intensity of disease
amongst the poor was less than the average in the proportion by
figures of about 25 to 29, and that while the amount of epidemic
disease exceeded the average in the proportion of 28 to 25, the
mortality from them was a little less than the average.
The total amount of sickness can be estimated by assuming the
proportion of deaths to cases of sickness amongst the poor as a
measure of the proportion of deaths to cases of sickness which
have occurred in the entire parish. From such a calculation it is
found that the amount of sickness was 72 per cent. of the population.
By a similar calculation on the average of the past six years,
it was about 80 per cent. Although such estimate must be
inaccurate, inasmuch as the sickness and mortality are much
greater amongst the poor than the rest of the community, it nevertheless
furnishes, if taken from year to year, a good, and, indeed,
until we are in possession of the information contained in the
recent census, the only basis for comparison.
SANITARY OPERATIONS.
Table VI. in the Appendix contains a summary of the sanitary
operations which have been carried out during the year. It is