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33
Whooping Cough has for the last two years been the most
fatal of the epidemic diseases. It is a disease of early childhood,
and except by isolation from those suffering from the
disease, is but very slightly under the control of sanitation,
the germs or morbific matter communicating it being
evidently conveyed by means of the atmosphere from
the lungs of one already suffering from the disease to those
of the recipient. It has been observed that some complication
such as pneumonia or bronchitis is usually the proximate
cause of death, and although it is quite possible that the
influence of the "materies morbi" of the disease may by
affecting the nerve supply of the lungs by the medium of the
spinal cord be directly the cause of death in some few
instances, still it is to be feared that to injudicious exposure to
inclement weather, especially during the earlier spring months,
when the majority of deaths from this disease occurs, must be
attributed much of the mortality caused by such complications.
From Diarrhoea, Dysentery, and allied bowel disorders 51
deaths were registered. This is above the number of the
previous year, which was however the lowest recorded, and
is less than the average. The fatality of this disease seems to
depend upon the temperature of the summer season—hot and
dry years producing great mortality amongst young infants—•
cold and wet summers arresting the disease. This may be
explained on two hypotheses, the first being that great heat
is directly productive of bowel affections by inducing decomposition
of their contents, and by the effect of high temperatures
upon the liver and the other eliminatories of the body ;
and this is the generally accepted view. The other explanation
is that a cold and wet summer keeps the sewers well
flushed and checks decomposition generally, thus preventing
the products of such decomposition setting up irritation of
the digestive tract.
Scarlatina caused but 17 deaths during 1883, the lowest