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indirectly, to the immoderate use of intoxicating liquors, could
be ascertained, alcoholism would occupy a more prominent
position in the bills of mortality ; but many deaths due to the
misuse of alcohol get certified, and therefore are classified,
to visceral and degenerative diseases caused or aggravated
by drink.
Class IV.— Constitutional Diseases.
This important Class comprises the causes of 536 deaths
(equal to 17.7 per cent. of total deaths), including 77 of
children under the age of five years: 426 of the deaths were
registered in the Town sub-district, and 110 in Brompton.
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart caused 10
deaths, 9 of them in the Town sub-district; Rheumatism 5
deaths. Gout was the cause of 6 deaths, 5 of them in the
Town sub-district, and Rickets of 3, two of them in the Town
sub-district.
Cancer, Malignant Disease, was accountable for 169
deaths: 120 in the Town sub-district and 49 in Brompton.
Cancer would appear to be on the increase in the country
generally: possibly, however, some portion of the apparent
increase in the number of deaths classified to this cause, may
be due to greater accuracy in diagnosis. The deaths in Kensington
in the ten preceding years were 138, 125, 127, 129, 140,
143, 136, 173, 168, and 193, respectively. Deaths from malignant
disease 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, 138 of the deaths took
place at ages above forty-five, and 22 between thirty-five and
forty-five years.