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20
Deaths in Relation to Disease.
The Local Government Board Table IV, which contains the complete
mortality statistics for the year, will be found at page 92. Some of the causes
contributing to the total number have already been commented upon; others
regarding which something may be said are diarrhœal diseases, the zymotic
diseases, phthisis and tubercular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancer, alcoholism
and accidents and suicide.
Diarrhceal Diseases.
Like 1909, the year under review was not what may be called a "diarrhœa"
year, i.e., one in which the summer was very warm and the weather dry. It is
not surprising, therefore, to find the total number of deaths from this cause
comparatively small—46—and the death rate low, .37 per 1,000. In 1908, when
the weather conditions were favourable to the spread of the disease, the deaths
numbered 55.
The fact that diarrhoea, especially the epidemic type, is more common and
more fatal in early life has already been mentioned, and special precautions are
taken to protect infants from infection by ensuring as far as possible that young
mothers are made acquainted with the manner in which infection takes place
and the modes of prevention. This work is done by the women inspectors and
the voluntary health visitors and it is believed that their efforts are responsible
to some extent for keeping the death-rate from this cause down.
Zymotic Diseases, Phthisis, Etc., and Respiratory Diseases.

Zymotic Diseases.
Included in this group are the following diseases, viz., smallpox, measles,
scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and membranous croup, typhus, enteric
and continued fevers, diarrhoea and enteritis. The mortality due to each is
sufficiently indicated in Table IV. It will be noted that whooping cough