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6i
VENEREAL DISEASES.
Syphilis.—Seven deaths were recorded as due to this disease; six of
these were infants under one year of age.
Gonorrhoea.—No deaths from this disease are recorded.
As I have observed in previous Annual Reports, nothing is more misleading
than the death returns of these diseases, and it will be so, until arrangement is
made for medical practitioners to send their certificates of death direct to the
Registrar. Meanwhile, the deaths really due to these causes are to be sought
under such headings as "locomotor ataxy," " striccure of urethra," " general
paralysis of the insane," etc.
OTHER DISEASES.
Alcoholism.—No deaths from this cause were recorded amongst the
residents. The death returns of this disease, as in the instance of venereal
diseases, are most deceptive. The number (male and female) can be considerably
added to by looking back into the life-history of some of the cases certified as
dying from cirrhosis of the liver, ascites, neuritis, etc., etc.
Respiratory Diseases, including bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, and
other non-tuberculous diseases of the respiratory system, gave rise to 24 less
deaths than in 1913. The figures are 116, giving a death-rate of 1.07 per 1000,
compared with 140 and a death-rate of 2-10 for the latter year. Pneumonia,
especially of the lobar variety, would be more correctly placed amongst the
specific infectious diseases. In the Registrar General's manual such causes
of death as "fibroid phthisis," "grinder's phthisis," are now classed amongst
"other respiratory diseases."
Table III. (old Table IV.) for 1914 is in the form according with the
" Manual of Causes of Death," adopted by the Registrar-General for use in
England and Wales from the International List.
Cancer.—Fifty-one deaths of persons belonging to the district were
registered as being due to cancer, and this is equivalent to a death-rate of
0.75. The deaths during 1913-12-11 were 48, 51 and 55. In the table below,
the 51 deaths from cancer among residents only have been analysed according
to the nature and position of the disease.