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55
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 578 deaths
(equal to 20'6 per cent, of total deaths), including 99 of
children under the age of five years : 475 of the deaths were
registered in the Town sub-district, and 103 in Brompton.
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart caused 15
deaths, 12 of them in the Town sub-district; Rheumatism 3
deaths. Gout was the cause of 5 deaths, 4 of them in the
Town sub-district, and Rickets of 7, all of them in the Town
sub-district.
Cancer, Malignant Disease, was accountable for 193
deaths ; 142 in the Town sub-district and 51 in Brompton.
Cancer would appear to be on the increase in the country
generally : possibly, however, some portion of the apparent
increase in number of deaths classified to this cause may be
due to greater accuracy in diagnosis. The deaths in Kensington
in the preceding ten years were 121, 138, 125, 127,
129, 140, 143, 136, 173, and 168 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, 170 of the
deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and 15 between
thirty-five and forty-five years.