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11
The Mortality from certain important Diseases during the Ten
Tears, 1863—72.
45. It may be convenient, in the first place, to show the total mortality,
and, in connexion with it, the mortality among children under two years of
age, from certain special forms of death peculiar to children, e.g., deaths
from suffocation, caused by overlying in bed, or other carelessness; from
atrophy and convulsions—exchangeable terms for gradual wasting, ending in
some convulsive affection—which is usually caused by defects of nursing, foul
air, or culpable neglect. Convulsions directly attributable to hydrocephalus
are not included, the object being to show the number of deaths occurring
among infants from the inattention of parents and nurses.
46. The average number of total registered deaths per annum, (excluding
deaths in hospitals) during ten years, was 1431; and of these there was an
average number of 500 among children under two years of age, = 35 per cent.
of the total mortality. Of the 500 deaths per annum of children, 15.4
occurred from "suffocation," 55. from "atrophy," and 34.2 from "convulsions,"
which is equivalent to about 21 per cent. Thus, of all the children
dying under two years of age in St. Giles District, 1 in 5 died from causes
chiefly induced by gross carelessness, abject poverty, or criminal neglect.
That this is not an exaggeration will be obvious, on consideration that
the deaths from premature birth, tabes mesenterica, teething, diarrhoea, &c.,
are not included.
47. The following Table exhibits the variations in the mortality in
different years, from the diseases cited. These variations are more especially
remarkable among the miasmatic order. Thus, there was an excess of deaths
from Small Pox in 1863, 1867, and 1871—every four years; from Scarlet
Fever in 1870; from Measles in 1865, 1867, and 1869; in these years the
deaths from "Whooping Cough were at the lowest (with the exception of the
year 1871), thus serving to show that there is not that inter-dependence
between Measles and Whooping Cough that has been sometimes imagined.
The deaths from Fever were most numerous in 1864 and 5, and from Diarrhoea
in 1866. when 49 deaths occurred from Cholera.

A Decrease of Mortality among the Miasmatic Diseases. 48. Notwithstanding
the variations in the mortality from the several miasmatic diseases,
there seems to be a general tendency to a decrease of mortality among the
members of the order, taken as a whole. In 1863 there were 360 deaths
from these diseases; in 1872, only 211—a very large reduction; and, even