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among the chief causes of this infantile mortality. As we
know that improper and insufficient food and clothing, as
well as exposure to climatic changes, are the chief causes
of the former disease, we protest strongly against the
inhuman custom of leaving infants to the care of children,
or in the hands of unprincipled persons, that their mothers
may undertake the duties of wet nurses or hands in factories,
&c., while the father is alive and in full work. Then
as regards the latter group of diseases, we are well aware
that most of the mortality is due to stupidity, neglect, or
wilful misconduct; and medical men, in giving certificates
of death, often feel they are encouraging vice and
offending their own consciences. And yet, there is no
help for it, for disease and neglect are oftentimes so indistinguishable
that it would be impossible to bring a charge
home to the culprits. The mortality among the very aged
(80 and upwards) is high. It constitutes 3.48 per cent. of
the total mortality (that of the whole city is 3.45.) The
oldest person who died last year was within a year of being
a centenarian, another died at 97, and a third at 95.
Social Position of the Deceased.—This portion of the
mortality table takes its colouring from the most populous
of the Sub-districts. Hence the poorer classes are found
to be more dominant in this than in several of the tables
in our Local Summaries. Still, certain causes of death,
such as old age, brain disease, and diseases of the digestive
system, show their usual partiality for the better classes
(proportionally, of course). Epidemic diseases are relatively
more numerous among the superior classes than we
could expect, considering their better chances of avoiding
infection, exposure, &c.
Sickness and Mortality among the Parochial Poor.—
Table V. in the Appendix gives all the necessary statistics.
The deaths are only 137 to 3157 cases treated, or 4.3 per
cent., nearly 1 per cent. below the average ratio.