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51
The following table, which was included for the first time in the Report for 1912
is repeated, as it lends further support to the view then expressed that cancer was in
no sense a class disease, since if those who died at home or in nursing homes are
taken to represent the rich or well-to-do, and those who died in hospitals or the
infirmary the less favourably circumstanced, the one group suffered equally with the
other.
At Home In Nursing Home In Hospitals In Infirmary In Asylums Totals
Males 27 6 24 18 — 75
Females 46 3 25 12 4 90
Totals 73 9 49 30 4 165
ALCOHOLISM.
Not one single death during the year was certified as due to alcoholism. Year
after year the number so certified has been quite small: this is, however, the first
year that no deaths amongst the inhabitants has been definitely put down to
alcoholism. Cirrhosis of the liver, a condition in most cases probably resulting from
abuse of alcohol, was held to be accountable for 6 deaths, the same number as in
1918. In 1914 the deaths from this cause numbered 18, and from alcoholism 4.
The deaths from other conditions due to the irritation produced in various organs
by chronic alcoholism, e.g., nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys) and Bright's
disease of the kidneys, numbered 39. The number in 1918 was 50, and in 1914, 68.
ACCIDENT, SUICIDE AND MANSLAUGHTER.
Accidental or violent deaths during 1919 numbered 69. Of these 16 were due
to suicide. Deaths of babies certified as resulting from suffocation (overlaying)
numbered 3.
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
A table showing, with regard to the infections, the total number of notifications
received, the age distribution and the number of cases notified from each of the
four registration districts, will be found on page 85.
The total number of notifications coming to hand, exclusive of cases of measles
notified by parents, was 1,802. The bulk of the notifications related to measles and
German measles, which between them contributed 920 to the total. Other diseases
in respect of which fairly large numbers of notifications were received were
tuberculosis (261), scarlet fever (197), diphtheria (154), and pneumonia (121).
In 1918 the number of cases notified was 1,530, the rise in 1919 being partly the
result of an increase in the number of cases of measles and German measles brought
to notice, and the addition of other diseases, especially pneumonia and malaria, to the
list of diseases notifiable.
The notification rate (proportion to population of notified cases of infectious
diseases) in 1919 was 18.9 per 1,000 as against 11.6 in 1913.