View report page

The quarterly distribution of the deaths at ages under 2 years recorded last year was —1st
quarter, 7 deaths (males 4, females 3); 2nd quarter, 6 (males 4, females 2); 3rd quarter, 30 (males
20, females 10); 4th quarter, 30 (males 19, females 11). This distribution shows that the deaths in
the fourth quarter equalled those in the third, an unusual occurrence. The extent to which such
distribution varied from past experience is shown in the appended figures, which also show that
the mortality from diarrhceal diseases was practically confined to the four northern Wards.

As a rule, the numbers of deaths of males and females are approximately equal, but last
year those of males considerably exceeded those of females. For each death of a female from
diarrhoea in the first quarter of last year there was 1.3 deaths of males, the average for the five
years 1908-12 being 0 8. The corresponding proportions were: for second quarter, 2 (average
1.4); third, 2 (average 1); and fourth, 1.7 (average 1.1). For the whole year the deaths of
males were, to those of females, as 1.8 to 1.0.
Since 1911 the deaths from the diarrhœal diseases have been entered under the headings of
"diarrhœa" and "enteritis," following the distinction made by the Registrar-General. In 1911
48.4 per cent. of the deaths recorded in the third quarter of the year came under the former
heading and 51.5 per cent. under the latter. In 1912 the proportions were 54.5 and 45.4 per
cent. respectively, and in 1913, 15.6 and 84.3 per cent., showing a considerable change in the
practice of naming the disease—a change which implies the substitution of the pathological
cause, an enteritis, for a symptom, diarrhœa, in the certificate of cause of death.
A third feature to which attention may well be directed is the increase in the proportion of
deaths occurring in institutions. In the third quarter of 1911 21.6 per cent. of all diarrhoea
deaths occurred in institutions, the proportion rising to 681 per cent. in 1912, and falling to 531
(17 out of 30 deaths) last year.
The "Diarrhcea Register" was opened on Monday, June 2nd, and closed on December 27th,
the term of the inquiry being extended on account of the continuance of cases after the usual
limit, which from previous experience is somewhere about the beginning of November. The
co-operation of the hospitals and Poor Law Medical Officers was accorded as in previous years,
and the School for Mothers made arrangements to supply the special preparations of milk which
have been useful on former occasions.
The cases known through the inquiries made at the hospitals and the reports received from
the Poor Law Medical Officers numbered 243, all in children under two years of age. In
addition, 72 cases in persons over that age were discovered. An examination of the records kept