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nearly 22 per cent.; and at 70 and over it is hardly
13 per cent.
The chief causes of death were as follows:—
phthisis 321, tabes and scrofula 214, hydrocephalus
51, convulsions and teething 138, pneumonia and
bronchitis 425, alvine flux, of children 68, and of
adults 18, continued fever 106, scarlet-fever 69,
small-pox 8, measles 24, whooping-cough, croup,
and diphtheria 177, and erysipelas 18, besides 174
from violence, privation, and premature birth.
Some of these numbers are slightly in excess of the
average, but generally they are much below it.
Tabes and scrofula, for example, have risen from
176 to 214, and whooping-cough, croup, and diphtheria
from 155 to 177; but phthisis has declined
from 360 to 321, hydrocephalus, convulsions, and
teething from 243 to 189, diarrhoea from 102 to
86, continued fever from 112 to 106, scarlet-fever
from 113 to 69, small-pox from 29 to 8, and
measles from 85 to 24: in fact, the decline of
zymotic diseases generally has been from a yearly
average of 614 to 488. Last year the mortality
was high from scarlet-fever and measles, but this
year, as you will notice, both of these diseases have
fallen below their normal proportion, while the
deaths from whooping-cough have risen from 69 to
114. This, indeed, is the only disease of the
zymotic class which has exceeded the average.