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24
Ages at Death.—1 find, as in most of my former Reports,
that at the two extremes cf life the table yields very
heavy results as to the mortality of the past year. Of
infants and young children between birth and ten years
of age there were registered as many as 260 as having
succumbed to disease, accident, &c.; which number exceeds
by 12 one half of the total mortality at all ages, and is, 1
regret to say, 49 above the number registered at the same
ages in 1868. Such a high rate of infant mortality is
most unsatisfactory, but it may be in great part accounted
for by the epidemic tendency having been everywhere
excessive during the year we are now speaking of. Passing
on to the columns which record the deaths of aged
people, it will be seen that 95 succumbed at ages ranging
from 60 to 90, of which number 72 were between 60 and
80, and 23 at 80 years and upwards.
Zymotic Diseases.—Of this class of diseases 125 persons
of all ages appear to have died in the year 1869, a number
exceeding by one only the total of the previous year. It
should be stated, however, that there occurred 14 more
deaths from Zymotic diseases amongst children from birth
to 10 years of age than the number recorded in the table
of 1868; but at the same time it is satisfactory to be able
to state that there were less deaths from this class of
maladies by 10, in favour of the past year, of persons over
20 years of age, and up to the extreme end of the scale.
To these 125 deaths in the past year, Scarlatina, it is
found, contributed 29, and Whooping Cough and Diarrhoea
respectively, the very same numbers, whilst Typhus claimed
17, and Small-pox as many as 10 victims within the year.
The intensity of these five epidemics, I need scarcely say,
was very great whilst they invaded the Sub-district, but
the statistics of the Registrar General which apply to the
entire Metropolis show, that throughout London these
same diseases proved fatal in an unusual number of
instances.
The following Table—the one I usually employ to show
the fatality of the seven principal Epidemic diseases—will