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ages. Of the 645 deaths of children, 224 were registered
as having resulted from Epidemic diseases, and is 47 in
excess of the number noted in 1868.
Mortality amongst the Aged.—The number of persons
registered in 1868 as having succumbed to old age was
large, viz. 40. In the past year there were recorded 54
deaths due to natural decay, the oldest person at the time
of death (a female), is registered as having reached the
unusual age of 103. Of persons dying of old age, 28
appear to have reached 80 and upwards, and 26 as being
between 60 and 80 years of age at the time of death. The
total of aged persons dying both of disease and natural
decay was 185, as many as 149 between 60 and 80, and
36 at 80 and upwards. The very aged person referred
to above, as having died at 103, is registered as dying of
an accident—(shock to the system from a fall)—so that it
is impossible to say to what extent of years she might
have reached, had she been spared the casualty which
unfortunately befel her.
Disease and Mortality amongst the Out-door Union
Poor. — It appears by Table V. in the Appendix, that the
Union Medical Officers treated, during the past year, 1,836
cases of disease, accident, &c., within the Sub-district, and
that of these 82 resulted in death. The table itself will
show the cause of death under 14 specified headings, and
I need scarcely add that a per centage of deaths to total
cases treated of 4.4 is a small one in comparison with that
noted in some former Reports. It is to be regretted that
so many as 31 cases of Small-pox were treated amongst
the parochial poor, but at the same time it is gratifying to
find that no deaths from this disease were recorded in the
Medical Relief books of the year. The deaths then from
this disease, 11 in number, recorded in the General Mortality
Table, it is presumed, fell principally or wholly upon
families of a class above that of the parochial poor, or
rather upon those of the industrial class not in the receipt
of union relief at the time of the invasion of their households
by this terrible disease.