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51
but also upon social and sanitary conditions. Summer
Diarrhœa is an infective disease, and though milk may be
the carrier of infection, the source of the contamination may
reside in the home conditions. Moreover, overcrowding and
other insanitary conditions act as predisposing factors in
determining a fatal attack of Diarrhœa.
There were 17 deaths from Pneumonia and 11 from
Bronchitis. In addition to these, there were 15 deaths from
Pneumonia and two from Bronchitis in children between the
ages of one and five years.
For many reasons it is advisable to deal with deaths from
Pneumonia and Bronchitis together. In a report to the Local
Government Board, Dr. Foulerton states that when the relative
mortality from Bronchitis and Pneumonia is tested by the
results of actual examination of the lungs in children after
death from respiratory diseases it is found that deaths from
Pneumonia preponderate probably in the ratio of about 94:6.
The apparent frequency of Bronchitis as a cause of death is
the result of error in death certification, attributable to
difficulty in diagnosis between Bronchitis and Pneumonia
during life in young children.
Under the heading Bronchitis and Pneumonia will be
included not only " the so-called 'primary ' Pneumonia, which
occurs without any obvious precedent departure from health,
but also the Pneumonia which occurs in children who have
been ailing because of defect existing at birth or because of
various unfavourable general conditions affecting them after
birth, and the Pneumonia which follows as a more or less
remote effect of the common infectious diseases and when all
characteristic symptoms of the primary illness have disappeared."
Of the deaths from Respiratory Diseases, three occurred
within one month of birth. The three children were delicate
at birth, and probably the lung disease was only an incident
and not the true cause of death.