View report page

58
Class IV.—Constitutional Diseases.
This important Class comprises the causes of 548 deaths
(equal to 190 per cent. of total deaths), including 70 of
children under the age of five years: 423 of the deaths were
registered in the Town sub-district, and 125 in Brompton.
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart
caused 11 deaths, 6 of them in the Town sub-district;
Rheumatism, 3 deaths. Gout was the cause of 7 deaths, 5
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 173
deaths; 124 in the Town sub-district and 49 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 128, 117, 121,
138, 125, 127, 129, 140, 143, and 136, respectively. Deaths
from malignant diseases 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-todo 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,
147 of the deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and 18
between thirty-five and forty-five years.
Purpura (Hemorrhagic Diathesis), was the cause of
one death; Anœmia and Leucocythœmia of 7; Glycosuria,
Diabetes Mellitus, of 22.
Tubercular Diseases were the registered causes of 318
deaths, (as compared with 307, 336, and 350, in the preceding