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50
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart caused 10
deaths, 7 of them in the Town sub-district; Rheumatism
2 deaths. Gout was the cause of 5 deaths, 3 of them in the
Town sub-district, and Rickets of 6, five of them in the Town
sub-district.
Cancer, Malignant Disease, was accountable for 168
deaths; 121 in the Town sub-district and 47 in Brompton.
Cancer would appear to be on the increase in the country
generally: possibly, however, some portion of the apparent
increase in the 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 117, 121, 1:58,
125, 127, 129, 140, 143, 136, and 173, 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, 140 of the
deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and 23 between
thirty-five and forty-five years.
Purpura (Hemorrhagic Diathesis) was the cause of
two deaths; Ancemia and Leucocythcemia, of 4; Glycosuria,
Diabetes Mellitus, of 17.
Tubercular Diseases were the registered causes of
340 deaths (as compared with 336, 350, and 318, in the preceding
three years respectively); viz., 293 in the Town
sub-district, and 47 in Brompton: 75 of the deaths were of
children under five years of age. In a few instances Phthisis
was returned as the cause of death in infancy, a period of life
at which the tubercular diathesis commonly manifests itself
in other parts of the body than the lungs, e.g., the brain,