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26
The number of children born of females who died of cancer of womb.
&c., are—4 and 6.
The number of children born of females who died of cancer of breast,
&c., are—1 and 0.
Developmental Diseases. This class of disease is credited
with 231 deaths, equalling a death rate of 2'28 per 1,000, this
number being distributed as follows:—Atelectasis 3, Congenital
Defects 11, Want of Breast Milk 1—which causes of death amongst
this class would appear to be generally 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 98 cases. The remaining
number, which forms by far the largest proportion, we find to be
due to causes which, in a greater or less degree, are preventible,
and therefore steps should be taken to conserve our population
in this respect, by as far as possible preventing death from
these causes, which are—Premature Birth, to which was
ascribed 56 deaths; Injury at Birth, 1; Debility at Birth, 1;
Atrophy, Debility, and Marasmus, 39; Dentition, 12; and
Rickets, 9; making a total of 118. When we come to look
more closely into these avoidable causes we find that many
of them point to want of care, insufficiency of food, or
improper diet provided for young children, and it seems to
me that this points the way in which steps could be taken
to remedy these conditions, viz., by educating, by all means
in our power, mothers and future mothers as to the proper way
of attending to, and bringing up, young children. Doubtless
this could be most satisfactorily carried out by means of lady
health visitors.