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The majority of the cases occurred towards the end of the year,
partly attributable, no doubt, to the excessive damp weather we
experienced.
Three of the six deaths were under five years of age.
WHOOPING COUGH.
There has been a great deal of Whooping Cough in the district,
and deaths have been recorded every month. In April alone there
were 11 deaths.
Of the 52 deaths, 47 were under five years of age.
DIARRHCEA.
There have been a larger number of deaths this year than in the
previous two years (Table XIV.)
The disease was most prevalent in July and August, at the end
of the spell of hot summer weather, In these two months there were
44 and 22 deaths respectively, out of 87 deaths during the year.
It chiefly attacked very young children, 83 being under 5 years of
age, and in July alone, 40 of the 44 deaths recorded were actually
under 1 year of age, the remaining 4 being under 2 years of age.
In a great measure, this disease could be kept in check, were
parents sufficiently careful in dieting their children during the hot
weather, and in scrupulously keeping feeding-bottles clean and sweet.
I feel confident that the serious nature of this complaint is not
sufficiently realised by the poorer classes. The symptoms are generally
attributed, through ignorance, to teething, or "consumptive bowels,"
and many children are brought for medical aid when almost moribund,
the triviality of diarrhoea from teething, or the supposed hopelessness
of "consumptive bowels," dulling the parents' senst of danger.
INFLUENZA.
There has been no epidemic of this infectious complaint, though
there have been numerous isolated cases at different times during the
year.
There were 10 deaths, 2 of which were one month and two months
of age respectively.
PHTHISIS.
The mortality is not quite so great as in 1895.