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Each of these causes will be considered separately.
Zymotic Diseases.
The diseases included under this heading are; small pox, measles, scarlet fever,
whooping cough, diphtheria and membranous croup, typhus, enteric and continued
fevers, diarrhoea and enteritis.
The number of deaths due to each will be found in Table III, (page 92).
With the exception of measles, which caused 37 more deaths (64 to 27) than in
1910 and diarrhoea, which was responsible for twice as many (92 to 46) as in the latter
year, the diseases in this list shewed a decrease over the previous year.
Phthisis and other Tubercular Diseases.
The number of deaths from phthisis and other tubercular diseases (tubercular
meningitis, general tuberculosis, tabes mesenterica, etc.) is greater by 44 than in 1910,
213 to 169.
For the increase, phthisis is mainly responsible, no fewer than 172 deaths being
certified as due to phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption of the lungs) as
against 133 in 1910. The remaining 41 deaths were traceable to tubercular affections
of the brain coverings (tubercular meningitis) and of the peritoneum (tubercular
peritonitis, tabes mesenterica), etc.
The cause of the increase in the number of the deaths from lung consumption is
difficult to explain. It is notorious that phthisical persons bear extreme heat badly,
but the bulk of the deaths as a matter of fact occurred in the first and last, the colder
quarters of the year. The increase in 1911 interrupts, as is shown in the following
table a steady decline in the death rate from these diseases, which began in 1905.
Even so, however, the number of deaths is still lower than that registered in the firstnamed
year by 35.