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10
previous year. The total of the seven principal epidemics is
found to be below the average of the ten preceding years
by 143 deaths.
The deaths from causes other than Zymotic were
2,169, and to this number (naming them in the order of
their greatest fatality), the diseases of the Respiratory
Organs contributed 543; the Tubercular class of maladies
(including Phthisis) 426; diseases of the Brain and Nerves
370; Premature Birth, Low Vitality, Malformation, &c.
143; diseases of the Heart 139; maladies of uncertain seat
126; diseases of the Digestive Organs 96; and of all
other diseases 65. These numbers, with two or three
exceptions, are found to be above the average of the ten
years preceding the one under notice. Besides these
there died 144 persons of Old Age, and 70 from Violence;
whilst 47 deaths were ill defined or not sufficiently specified
in the returns.
Ages at Death.—It is with some considerable satisfaction
that the deaths of infants, and young persons between
birth and 10 years of age, are found to have been much
fewer than in the previous year. Of infants dying under
1 year there were 636 against 705 in 1872; of those
dying from 1 to 5 years, there were 389 against 452, and
of those from 5 to 10 years, 75 against 61. In the aggregate
there were 118 less deaths at these ages than in the previous
year. This, it is submitted, is no inconsiderable saving of
life, seeing that the number of deaths due to ordinary
diseases was so much above the average. At the other
extreme of age, i.e. over 80 years, a goodly number are found
to have been registered in the past year. In the previous
year 94 persons at 80 and upwards were registered, but the
present return records as many as 127. There were also
more than the usual number who had reached their 90th
year, and some who had lived beyond that advanced age.
There were two deaths, for instance, in Battersea at 98
years, and one at Clapham at the same age, whilst the