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7
The Birth-rate for the entire District for 1870, calculated
upon the same basis as the above, was 35.5 per 1,000, and
the rate of natural increase 13.7 per 1,000.
Zymotic Diseases and, their resulting Deaths.—The excess
of deaths registered in the past year over the number noted
in 1869, is undoubtedly due to the unusual fatality that
attended three of the seven principal Zymotic diseases,
viz., Scarlatina, Diarrhœa (ordinary and Choloreic), and
Fever, the deaths from which amounted together to the
large number of 568, which is 75.6 per cent. of the total
mortality from this class of maladies, and 21.3 per cent. of
the total deaths from all causes. In 1869, the abovenamed
three diseases were fatal in 433 instances, which is
134 less than in 1870, although the former year may be
looked upon as one in which all three of the diseases here
referred to prevailed to a somewhat alarming extent in portions
of this District. Comparing the mortality table in
the present Report (No. I. appendix) with that in the
Report of 1869, in respect to the fatality of the other diseases
of the Zymotic Class, it is found that there is a
considerable diminution in the number of deaths in favour
of the past year; thus, the deaths from Small-Pox, which
were 21 in 1869, fell to 15 in the past year; Measles,
from 52 to 46; Diphtheria, from 14 to 12; and Whooping
Cough, from 96 to 56, giving a total diminution in the
number of deaths from four of the seven principal epidemic
diseases of no less than 50. A decrease of 6 deaths from
Small Pox in the two years, 1869-70, is not strikingly
great, and it is a matter for considerable regret that this
disease is found in the present year (1871) to be assuming
proportions, both as regards cases and deaths, that cannot
fail to very sensibly increase the mortuary rate of the District
that will have to be calculated and referred to in the
next Annual Report. In Battersea alone, the deaths due
to Small Pox, between the week that ended January, 1871,
and that which terminated on the 27th of May of the
same year, numbered as many as 113; and in some other
portions of the District the mortality is known to have
been somewhat heavy during the same period.