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27
compensate for the trouble and expense occasioned, moreover the
whole tendency of present-day research seems to point in an
entirely different direction and having nothing whatever to do
with housing conditions or habits of the patient.
Developmental Diseases. This class of disease is credited
with 261 deaths, equalling a rate of 2·53 per 1,000, this number
being distributed as follows:—
Atelectasis 5, Congenital Defects 9, which causes of death
amongst this class would appear to begenerally the unavoidable ones.
The next subdivision of this developmental class might be
described as the ideal cause of death, viz.. Old Age or Senile
Decay, which was ascribed as the actual cause in 133 cases.
The remaining number, which forms a large proportion, we
find to be due to causes which, in a greater or less degree, are
preventable. Premature Birth, to which was ascribed 55 deaths;
Debility at Birth, 5; Atrophy, Debility and Marasmus, 39;
Dentition, 11; and Rickets, 4 ; making a total of 114.
Local Diseases. Nervous System. This class of disease
is credited with having caused 123 deaths, giving a death rate of
1·19 per 1,000. Of this number 25 were ascribed to Convulsions,
all of them being in young children. Meningitis is credited with
having caused 11 deaths; Apoplexy, 45; Softening of the Brain,
5; Brain Paralysis, 5; General Paralysis, 6; other forms of
Insanity, 6; Cerebral Tumour, 2; Epilepsy, 4; Diseases of the
Spinal Cord, 7; and other diseases of the Brain and Nervous
System, 6.
Circulatory System. This class of disease is credited
with having occasioned 122 deaths, 103 of this number being