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14
It will be seen from Table A 1 that, as in previous years, there
is a disproportionately high number of deaths in the Southern
Division, after making allowance for the difference in the populations
of the two Divisions. This is chiefly due to the fact chat the birthrate
for the Southern Division is, and has been for years, considerably
in excess of that for the Northern Division, and since the
population includes more of the poorer classes and is more crowded
on area, the rate of infantile mortality will always exceed that in the
Northern Division. It will be noted that the mortality of the
Southern Division exceeds that of the Northern mainly in respect of
the deaths from Diarrhoea, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, Whooping
Cough, Phthisis, and other tubercular diseases, Diseases of Respiratory
and Circulatory Organs, Diseases of Nervous System
(including Apoplexy and Convulsions), Premature Birth, Wasting
and Debility, and alcoholism; and if these deaths were grouped
according to the ages at which death occurred, it would be
found that by far the largest number would be allotted to the
first five years of life. The mortality from Influenza, on the
other hand, was disproportionately high in the Northern Division.
In my Reports for 1897, 1898 and 1899, attention was drawn to
the loose manner in which the cause of death is sometimes
registered, and the difficulties which this fact gives rise to in compiling
an accurate classification. During last year the returns
continued to show some improvement, but in several cases during the
year the cause of death was registered as from two distinct diseases,
apparently co-existent. ("Tetany, Bronchitis, Scarlet Fever,";
"Chronic Nephritis, Biliary Calculi, Œdema of Lung, Cardiac
Failure," &c.) Doubtless, the symptoms of one complaint were predominant
just before death, and if this circumstance were indicated
it would be far easier to decide which disease could be most justly
credited with the death for the purposes of classification. "Convulsions,"
Hypertrophy of Heart," and "Hæmaturea," are instances
of loose certification, for each of these conditions is a symptom of
some malady the nature of which can generally be determined and
named on the certificate. Two deaths, one at 70 and the other at
71, were attributed solely to "senile decay."