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7
Having recorded the exceptionally low death rate of 18 per 1,000,
I can do little more than note that the history of the year has been
singularly uneventful.
Measles, Scarlatina, and Whooping Cough were again decidedly
epidemic. Of these Whooping Cough was the most severe, and caused
the largest number of deaths.
To Measles 153 deaths were attributed as against 161, 48, and 219
in the three previous years. 103 of the deaths out of 153 from
this disease were recorded during November and December.
Scarlatina caused 142 deaths against 116, 198, and 135 in the three
previous years. The deaths, however, referred to this disease in the
epidemics of more recent date, compare favourably with 392 deaths
recorded in 1863, 313 in 1869, and 465 in 1870, in each of which
years Scarlatina was most fatally epidemic.
As is generally the case, the fatality from Scarlatina was specially
marked during the months of September, October, and November, more
than one-half of the total deaths occurring in the three months named.
Whooping Cough, which was the most severely epidemic, caused
299 deaths, the highest number (with the exception of 1880, when the
number was the same) ever recorded in any one year as referable to this
disease.
In the case of Whooping Cough, the first six months of the year
were the most fatal, 219 deaths (or more than two-thirds of the total
number) having been recorded during that period.
The deaths during the previous five years from the same disease
amounted to 172, 299, 229, 296, and 165 respectively.
The deaths attributable to Fever generally amounted to 77. This
is two less than occurred in the previous year, although the number
was rather above the average.
The mortality from Diarrhoea (as is usual during a wet summer)
was exceptionally low, 149 deaths only having been referred to this
disease. In 1877 the deaths recorded were identical, whilst in 1879 there
were only 104. With these two exceptions, the actual mortality from
Diarrhoea has never been so low during the last twenty years, and this
notwithstanding the vast increase in the population during that period.