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Uncertified
Deaths.
Two cases of death were not certified by a
registered medical practitioner, and were referred to the
Coroner, but no inquest was held. The causes of death
were stated in one case to have been syncope from heart
disease, female aged 40; and in the other, convulsions
from dentition, female aged seven months.
General Re marks.
Although the death-rate for the year, viz.
15.76 per 1,000, shows an increase as compared with
1894, yet from a sanitary point of view, the health of the
sub-district during the year has been very satisfactory.
As has already been observed, the increase is wholly due
to two factors, first the epidemic of influenza in March,
and second, the increase in the infantile mortality. Preventive
medicine seems not to be able to limit, much less
eradicate influenza, but much might be done [to further
lessen infantile mortality. Much has been done in the
past to save infant life, and more especially does this hold
good with regard to the diseases of the zymotic class.
Besides tubercular disease, which was the cause of
31 deaths in 1895, the other causes were diseases of the
respiratory and digestive organs (including diarrhoea),
and premature birth and low vitality.
The prevention of tubercular disease in infants has
been dealt with earlier in this report, but the causes of
much of the lung and digestive diseases, as well as of
premature birth, are so complex and numerous that they