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17
I must draw attention to the number of infants under 12 months who died from
diarrhoea. Nearly 70 per cent. of the deaths from this disease were of babies not a
year old. Milk is the food upon which infants should be fed, and too much importance
cannot be attached to the proper cooking of this food. Milk should always be boiled
before it is given, and if this were generally attended to, there would be a marked
diminution in the loss of life from this cause which annually occurs.
There were no deaths from cholera or choleraic diarrhoea. This disease has been
gradually disappearing throughout Europe, and now is mainly confined to certain
districts in Russia.
WHOOPING COUGH.
Of the 86 deaths attributed to whooping cough, 83 were of children below 5 years
of age. In the great majority of case complications, especially bronchitis and
pneumonia, were the immediate cause of death.
The death-rate from this disease is somewhat higher than that of last year, being
0.70 as compared with 0.54 per 1000 inhabitants.
INFLUENZA.
This disease with its complications was the cause of 15 deaths, as compared with
36 last year. There has been rather more of this disease about this year, but it
appears to have been of a milder type than last year.
TUBERCULAR DISEASES.
This group of diseases, which includes tabes mesenterica, phthisis or consumption,
tubercular meningitis and other forms of disease due to the tubercle bacillus, was the
cause of 362 deaths, of which 259 were attributed to consumption. The death-rate
was 2.95 as compared with 3'13 in 1893. It is satisfactory to observe that during the
last three years there has been a progressive diminution in the number of deaths due
to this cause. In 1892 the deaths numbered 392, in 1893 they were 384, and in 1894
there is a further fall to 362. I think this may be taken as a good indication of
progress being made in improving the conditions under which a large
proportion of the population of the parish lives, so far as their dwellings are
concerned. Dampness of walls and foundations, insufficient light and ventilation,
overcrowding and defectively constructed drains are potent factors amongst the
predisposing causes of tubercular disease, and in proportion as these conditions are
removed in the parish, so we may expect the death-rate from tubercular diseases
to decrease.
PARISH DISPENSARY.
I append a table of the cases treated by the District Medical Officers of the
parish, during the past year, (see table xxiv), which serves to indicate roughly the extent
to which illness was prevalent in the district. There is a marked difference
as compared with the year 1893, in the total, the number being 4297 in 1894, as