View report page

10
severe, year by year; and it is probably the result
of that intensity of mental labour which the growing
activity of commerce demands. Among the
females at those ages, the death-rate is not remarkably
excessive, for it ranges from 37 per 1,000 at
the first period to 80 at the last—the averages for
England and France being about 28 and 60.
With respect to the causes of death, there has
been a slight increase in the mortality from phthisis,
and a decrease in that from tabes and hydrocephalus.
Inflammatory affections of the lungs have
also declined from a general average of 503 in the
year to 452; and with regard to the zymotic class
of disease, although they have advanced from 624
to 612, yet some of them, as continued fever,
whooping-cough, and the diarrhoea of adults, have
been less severe than usual, while scarlet-fever,
measles, and the diarrhœa of children have been
more than commonly fatal; and here I may remark
that the chief increase in the mortality from phthisis
has been in the winter quarter, that of measles in
spring and summer, that of infantile diarrhoea in
summer, and that of scarlet-fever in autumn. Looking
at the principal facts on record during the last
ten years, it would seem that these diseases are more
prevalent and fatal at certain seasons of the year
than at others. Thus, the largest mortality from
phthisis and hydrocephalus is during the cold and