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108
1906]
VENEREAL DISEASES.
To these diseases, which comprise Syphilis and Gonorrhoea, were ascribed
the deaths of 16 persons, of whom 11 were males and 5 were females. They
included, it should be noticed, the deaths of 9 children under a year old, while
only 6 were adults. The record of these diseases during the last six years has
been as below:-
Under l year. 1-5. Adults. Total
1901 10 1 6 17
1902 11 - 10 21
1903 10 1 8 19
1904 12 2 6 20
1905 13 - 5 18
1906 9 1 6 16
Totals 65 5 41 111
This table shows that in six years 111 persons died, of whom 65 or
58.6 per cent. were infants under a year old, and 5 or 4.5 per cent. were
children between one and five years of age, while 41 or 36.9 per cent. were
adults.
It is not to be supposed, however, that the deaths among adults due to
venereal diseases are so few as this return would show, for there are
undoubtedly many diseases of mature life, causing death, which would never
have occurred if the persons attacked by them had not suffered at an earlier
period from syphilis. The chief of these are locomotor ataxia, dementia
paralytica, certain types of epilepsy, and arterio-sclerosis. Indeed, the heart,
arteries and veins of syphilitic persons are all liable to be affected. Many
deaths consequently are attributed to these and other diseases as the primary
causes, whereas they are in reality only secondary.
DEATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The returns show that 1,603 persons, residents of Islington, died in the
public institutions of London, or 22 more than in the previous year, and 96
above the average of the preceding ten years. The return is the highest since
1902 when it was 1,646 and is even worse than it appears, for whereas in 1902