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the truth were known, the deaths from this Protean malady would
prove more numerous than the record shows.
Stricture of Urethra was the cause of two deaths.
Order 3. Dietic Diseases.— Nineteen deaths were caused by the
"diseases" named in this order. Privation was the cause of one
death, and want of breast-milk of 7 deaths of infants under one year.
"Alcoholism" was the cause of 11 deaths, all in the Town sub-district.
The deaths due to the abuse of alcohol are classified (a) delirium
tremens, 4 deaths; and (b) intemperance, 7 deaths. If all the diseases
and all the deaths due, directly or indirectly, to the misuse of alcoholic
stimulants could be traced to their source, the sum total would be
very great. Many deaths really due to the abuse of alcohol get
registered as having been caused by secondary diseases set up doubtless
or aggravated by "drink." Man's ingenuity in the discovery of
alcohol is accountable for a large part of the misery of his race.
Alcohol is a fruitful source of vice and crime, as well as being
the cause of much bodily sickness, and of many premature deaths.
Drink fills our hospitals and asylums, our prisons, our workhouses,
and our national exchequer !
Order 4. Parasitic Diseases.—Thirteen deaths in the first year
of life, and all but one in the Town sub-district, were caused by
Aphtha or Thrush, the only fatal disease named.
Class 2.— CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES.
The second great Class in the Eegistrar General's tables, Constitutional
diseases, embraces the causes of 615 deaths, viz.:— 502 in the
Town sub-district, and 113 in Brompton:— 10 above the number in
1878, and 132 above the number in 1877. One-hundred-and-ninety
of the deaths were of children under five. The class includes two
Orders, viz.:—(1) diathetic diseases, 116 deaths; and (2) tubercular
or scrofulous diseases, including phthisis, 499 deaths.
Order 1. Diathetic.—The deaths from the maladies comprised
in this order, 116 in number, viz.:—90 in the Town sub-district, and
26 in Brompton, were Gout (9), Dropsy (8), Cancer (95), and Morti-