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9
The greater fatality of the zymotic diseases generally, and of
measles in particular, in the Town sub.district, cannot fail to be
noticed; as well as the high mortality from tuberculous and lung
diseases, atrophy of children, croup, &c. It is obvious, in fact,
that the diseases which depend on a lowered condition of vitality,
or on hereditary taint, are more prevalent in the Town sub.
district than in Brompton. So are the diseases that may be correctly
described as of a more or less preventable character, such,
for example, as the lung diseases which are so fatal at the extremes
of life, when the influences of neglect and poverty, on the one
hand, and of care and comfort on the other, are so strong for evil
or for good in the exposure of young and old to, or their preservation
from, the predisposing causes of disease. The diseases which mark
the later periods of life are, as might be expected, prominently
noticeable in the Brompton mortality, such, for instance, as the
brain diseases, apoplexy and paralysis, and heart disease. Cancer
was equally fatal in both districts. Croup, on the other hand, was
most fatal in the " Town," and Bright's disease, by comparison, in
Brompton. I say nothing on the relative numbers of deaths attributed
to " old age," as the employment of that term generally
implies failure of diagnosis rather than death without disease.
Under the heads of the various diseases, and in Tables 3 and
3a (Appendix), I have specified in detail the causes of death; but
in these introductory general remarks it will not be out of place to
refer to the mortality in the parish as a whole from some of the
principal classes and orders of diseases. Thus the seven principal
diseases of the zymotic class (or rather six, for there was
no death from small.pox) were accountable for 3S8 deaths—a
mortality equivalent to 2.8 per 1,000 persons living, and to 144
out of every 1,000 deaths. Chest diseases, other than phthisis,
killed 554 persons (an increase of 71 over 1873), equivalent to
4 per 1,000 of the population, and to 208 per 1,000 deaths.
Tuberculous diseases (including phthisis, scrofula, rickets, and
tabes) were the causes of 326 deaths, or 2.3 per 1,000 living, and
121 per 1,000 deaths. Nearly allied to these diseases, if not
identical in origin, are the wasting diseases of children, viz., those
registered as marasmus, atrophy, debility, want of breast milk,
and premature birth. These killed 209 children under five years
of age, equal to 1.5 per 1,000 living, and to 77 per 1,000 deaths.
The convulsive diseases of infants (hydrocephalus, infantile meningitis,
convulsions, and teething) were fatal to 161 infants under
five, or 1.1 per 1,000 living, and 59 per 1,000 deaths (vide Table
4, Appendix). Constitutional diseases caused 591 deaths = 4 2
per 1,000 living, and 232 per 1,000 deaths. Local diseases caused
1,143 deaths = 8 3 per 1,000 living, and 434 per 1,000 deaths.
Developmental diseases caused 356 deaths — 2.5 per 1,000 living,
and 138 per 1,000 deaths. Violent deaths (50) were equal to .3
per 1,000 living and to 18 per 1,000 deaths. The deaths of which
the causes were not specified, or were ill.defined, were 22 in number
= .1 per 1,000 of the population and 7 per 1,000 deaths.