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7
Scarlet Fever.— No mortality has been caused by this disease.
This is, I believe, the first time that such a statement could be made,
and it points to the fact that the type of this disease during the
whole of the year must have been of a peculiarly benign nature.
Diphtheria was credited with 11 deaths, 2 in the first, 1 in the
second and 4 in each of the third and fourth quarters. These deaths
were 5 less when compared with the previous year, and we must go
back to the year 1892 before the mortality due to it was so small as for
1898.
Typhoid Fever caused 4 deaths, compared with none for the
previous year. The deaths from this disease are about the average
for the last ten years, so that taking the increase of population into
account the mortality per 1,000 inhabitants has considerably
decreased.
Whooping Cough has caused 8 deaths, 6 of them having
occurred in the third quarter. Six of the cases were in children under
5 years of age.
Diarrhœa was fatal to the extent of 15 cases, 13 being in the
third and 2 in the fourth quarter. All the deaths occurred in children
under 5 years of age. This mortality was considerably less than for
the previous year, but still larger than that for any year from
1896 to 1892 inclusive. From the fact that most of the deaths
occurred in the third or warmest quarter, and all in young
children, it is very probable that a good deal of the disease
was due to improper feeding, as milk—which is, or should be,
the staple article of diet in young children—is under these circumstances
very apt to become sour, and if taken more or less in that
condition, proves a very fertile source of diarrhoea. In connection
with the feeding of infants attention should also be drawn to the fact
that milk is being sold as condensed separated milk. It cannot
be too generally known that such milk is totally unfit to be
given as the entire food of infants, as the fat necessary for
nourishment has been partly taken out, leaving only about one
per cent. instead of three and a-half to four per cent., and it
follows that very much more of such milk has to be taken in order to
get the amount of fat required for nutrition; in fact, it is stated that