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35
CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES.
The second great class in the Registrar General's tables, viz,
Constitutional diseases, comprises the causes of 483 deaths; 395 in
the Town sub-district, and 88 in Brompton—80 below the number
registered in 1876. The class includes two orders, viz., (1)
Diathetic diseases, 109 deaths; (2) tubercular or scrofulous diseases
(including phthisis) 374 deaths
Order 1. Diathetic Diseases. —The fatal diseases were
Gout (4), Dropsy (12), Cancer (88), and Mortification (5).
Only twenty-three of the deaths occurred in Brompton, including
20 due to cancer.
Order 2. Tubercular..—-374 deaths, viz., 309 in the Town
sub-district, and 65 in Brompton. Scrofula and Tuberculosis
occasioned 37 deaths, including three only in Brompton; Tabes
mesenterica (" consumption of the bowels" as it is popularly called),
33 deaths, of which 5 were in Brompton; Phthisis 225 deaths,
viz., 182 in the Town, and 43 in Brompton; Hydrocephalus (water
on the brain), and Tubercular meningitis 79 deaths—14 in Brompton.
The deaths from all these diseases were far more numerous in
the Town sub-district than in Brompton, due regard being had
to population.
In Table 3 (Appendix) the deaths of non-parishioners at the
Brompton Hospital, 124 in number, are excluded: nearly
all of them were due to phthisis (vide page 40). Many deaths
of children ascribed to other causes, e.g. premature birth,
atrophy and debility, convulsions, &c., are doubtless due to the
scrofulous taint, whether inherited or induced by want of care,
proper food, air, light, &c., Sixty of the deaths in this order
occurred in the first year of life, 39 in the second, and 29 between
two and five, making 128 under five years of age. The
deaths, in decades, in later life, were as follows Between 5 and 15
years, 29; 15 and 25, 44; 25 and 35, 69: 33 and 45, 53:
45 and 55, 33; 55 and 65, 12; 65 and upwards, 6. It is
satisfactory to note that the deaths from tubercular diseases as
an order, were nearly one hundred fewer than in 1876. The quarterly
numbers of deaths were 104, 83, 97, and 90=187 in the
summer, and 187 in the winter quarters.
LOCAL DISEASES.
This great class accounts for nearly half the deaths registered in
the parish. It is sub-divided into eight orders, according to
the systems or organs affected, and which will be noticed separately.
In this class as in all others, the deaths in Brompton (218),
were relatively far fewer than in the Town sub-district (966),
regard being paid to the estimated population. Of the total 1,184,