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and five years, and 20 between five and ten years, making
a total of 170 under 10 years, or within 15 of one half of
the deaths registered during the year.
At the other extreme of the scale, namely, of old age or
natural decay, there died 29 persons, 13 between the
ages of sixty and eighty, and as many as 18 above 80 years.
Taking, then, the mortality under twenty years of age, and
adding the number that succumbed to old age, it will be
seen that nearly two-thirds of the deaths registered in the
past year befel the very young and very old, thus confirming
my often-repeated assertion, that whenever a higher
rate of mortality than usual has manifested itself in this
populous sub-district, the local registrar has always recorded
the fact referred to. Under the head of social position, it
will be found that a great preponderance of deaths took
place amongst the labouring classes, much greater than
amongst the three other classes combined. This circumstance
plainly points out the direction which sanitation
ought still to take, to secure for it the greatest advantages
to the community at large.
diseases of the zymotic class—their prevalence
and fatality.
In order to exhibit the large amount of zymotic disease
this sub-district was subject to, in common with every
other parish in the District, during the past year, the following
table had been prepared. This will also show the
great fluctuations that have attended the mortality from
zymotic diseases for the past eight years, and demonstrate
the fact of the year 1863 being quite an exceptional one
both in regard to the prevalence and the fatality of the
seven principal epidemic maladies. It will, likewise, show