View report page

65
[1905
VENEREAL DISEASES.
Under this heading are included Syphilis and Gonorrhoea, and to these
were credited 18 deaths, 16 being registered from the former, and 2 from the
latter disease.
It is a noticeable fact that as many as 13 out of the total number of
deaths from the venereal diseases occurred among children who had not
attained their first year, which brings to mind the scriptural adage as to the
parents eating sour grapes and the children's teeth being set on edge.
Only 4 adults died from venereal disease.
Four of the deaths occurred in the Public Institutions within the
borough.
ALCOHOLISM.
Notwithstanding the fact that drink is the cause of much sickness, it is
interesting to note that only 3 deaths were ascribed directly to alcoholism,
and that each of the deceased were males.
The recorded mortality from alcoholism has of late years declined both
amongst men and women throughout England and Wales, and at the same
time the deaths from Cirrhosis of the Liver have also decreased; consequently,
the Registrar-General in his last report writes that "it is permissible to hope
that there has been, at any rate, no increase in the loss of life by intemperance.
Inasmuch, however" (he goes on to say), "as it is impracticable to
obtain an accurate expression of the mortality indirectly caused by the use of
alcohol, it would be rash, in the face of the data, to assume a substantial
improvement in this direction until the fallen mortality of those diseases
that are most obviously associated with this habit shall have become more
pronounced than is at present the case."
In another part of his report he notes that "the mortality from Hepatic
Cirrhosis showed a tendency to increase in the closing years of the last
century, but since the year 1901 it has shared in the decreasing fatality of
liver diseases generally."