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34
Small Pox and Vaccination.—Although the deaths from
Small Pox were 4 less in 1870 than in the previous year,
I regret to say the present year (1871) has dawned most
unfavourably in respect to this disease, indeed at the time
of preparing this Report the epidemic had assumed so
severe and fatal a form as to give rise to a very general
remark, that the Sub-district had never before experienced
so alarming a visitation. Why, under what would appear
to be circumstances by no means favourable to the invasion
of this parish by Small Pox, this malady should have
become suddenly prevalent, I can scarcely determine; but.
this I do know, the Registration Act is being continually
evaded, and there is nothing more certain than that the
neglect of birth registration has in this District led, in
very many instances, to the utter neglect of vaccination
at the proper period. As regards both the Registration
and Vaccination Acts, I must repeat the observations 1
made in my last Report, that neither of them should any
longer be called 'Compulsory Acts,' if the authorities
continue to shut their eyes to the consequences of parental
apathy, and I may now add, with truth, of wilful neglect
on the part of numbers of the inhabitants.
Ages at Death.—A rather pad feature of the Mortality
Table has here to be noticed, viz., that of the 480 deaths
from all causes, registered in the past year, as many as
254 children between birth and ten years of age succumbed
to the diseases, &c., incident to childhood, a number which
is father above one-half of the total mortality at all ages.
Large as this number is, it was exceeded in 1869, when,
of a total of 508 deaths from all causes, 260 were registered
at the same youthful ages.
Concerning the deaths of persons advanced in life, the
several columns relating to "age" in the Table will afford all
the information needed. It may be stated, however, that
of 87 persons between 60 and the most extreme age, there
Were 60 between 60 and 80, and 19 at 80 and upwards,
the eldest having reached the advanced age of 94 years.