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64
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart caused 15
deaths, all of them in the Town sub-district ; Rheumatism, 6
deaths. In fatal cases of rheumatic fever, the immediate cause
of death, not infrequently, is disease of the heart arising in the
course of the malady; and of the deaths certified from heart
disease at later periods of life, not a few might properly be
ascribed to rheumatism as the primary cause. But the
connection between the two diseases is either overlooked or,
it may be, unknown to the certifying practitioner. In the new
classification, deaths due to rheumatic disease involving the
heart, are distinguished from deaths due to rheumatism without
complication. Gout was the cause of 7 deaths, 6 of them
in the Town sub-district, and Rickets of 4.
Cancer, Malignant Disease, was accountable for 140
deaths ; 105 in the Town sub-district and 35 in Brompton.
Cancer is on the increase in the country generally : possibly,
however, some portion of the apparent increase in deaths
classified to this cause may be due to more accurate diagnosis.
The deaths in Kensington in the preceding ten years, were
128, 117, 119,128, 117, 121, 138,125,127, and 129, respectively.
Deaths from cancer are usually more numerous, proportionally
to population, in the Brompton sub-district than in the
relatively poorer Town sub-district, cancer being quite as
prevalent, probably even more prevalent, amongst well-to-do
people, than in the poorer classes. The parts of the body
most commonly affected are the viscera or internal organs ; in
women, the uterus and the breast; the disease, moreover,
being for the most part one of later life. Thus 116 of the
deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and 18 between
thirty-five and forty-five. It is proper to mention that in
Table III. (Appendix) the deaths attributed to cancer have
been classified to cancer, irrespective of the question whether
any other disease was named in the medical certificate, or
whether cancer was the immediate cause of death,