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The next most common cause of death was cancer, which was
responsible for 92 deaths as compared with 79 for the previous year
and 91 for 1936. Pneumonia was the cause of death in 30 cases,
and tuberculosis of all forms was the cause of death in 28 cases.
The number of deaths due to the principal zymotic diseases,
enteric fever, smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
whooping cough and diarrhoea (in children under 2 years) was 6.
Of this number three were due to measles, two to diphtheria and
One to diarrhoea.
The zymotic death-rate was 0.11 per 1,000 of population as
compared with 0.26 for the previous year.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The number of deaths occurring in children under 12 months
of age was 25, and the Infantile Mortality Rate 38 per 1,000 live
births. This is a very considerable improvement on the rate for
1937 which was 48, and is the lowest since 1934 when the rate
was 37.
The individual causes of the infantile deaths and the age
at which death took place are shown in Table Y. Of the total of
25 deaths no fewer than 10 took place in the first week of life and
a further 7 before the end of the first month. The chief causes of
death were prematurity, which was given as the cause of death in
nine cases, and broncho-pneumonia, which was responsible for seven
deaths.
MORTALITY OF CHILDREN BETWEEN ONE AND FIVE
YEARS.
Five deaths occurred in children over one and under five
years. Of these two were caused by diphtheria, two by bronchopneumonia,
and one by measles. These deaths represent a death
rate in this age group of 0.09 per 1,000 of the total population and
0.9 per cent. of the total deaths for the year at all ages.