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diarrhoea in a cool summer, such as we experienced in 1883, and so that
the number of deaths from bowel disorders last year was far below the
average; and diarrhceal diseases caused only 87 deaths. Forty-nine of
these were infants, aged less than one year; 27 were young children,
between one and five; and the remaining nine were adults,
OTHER ZYMOTIC DISEASES.
One death was registered from Hydrophobia. A little child, two
years of age, was bitten in the leg by a dog; two months afterwards
symptoms of Hydrophobia developed, and the child died after a few
days of great suffering.
Fourteen deaths were recorded as from Syphilis, all except two
being from the congenital form of this disease.
DIETETIC DISEASES.
ALCOHOLISM.
Seven deaths were recorded under this head. In three the
immediate cause was Delirium Tremens; and in four others, all
certified by the Coroner, the fatal disease was either produced or its
termination was accelerated by excessive drinking. Three of the cases
were females, aged respectively 50, 59, and 67; one was that of a man
aged 56. Death resulted in all these cases from effusion of blood on
the brain, accelerated by excessive drinking, and in one, by falling
about while drunk. If medical men were a little more plain spoken,
and not so much afraid of offending the friends of the patients, this
cause would appear on the register much more frequently than it does
at present.
PRIVATION.
Six infants were unable to digest the artificial substitutes for the
natural breast milk, and succumbed.
One man died from Pneumonia, and another from congestion of the
brain, in both cases the fatal termination was in the opinion of the
Coroner's jury accelerated by want and destitution,