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probable that many of the deaths of young children ascribed to
such causes as premature birth, atrophy and debility, convulsions,
etc., are primarily due to the scrofulous taint. Frequently other
diseases, especially of the lungs (bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.), are
associated with phthisis in certificates of death, but all such
associated diseases are disregarded: when phthisis is returned, the
death is invariably classified to that disease.
CLASS 3.—LOCAL DISEASES.
This great class of diseases is accountable for 1,284 deaths (viz.,
1,033 in the Town, and 251 in Brompton), or about 44'6 per cent.
of total deaths : 424 of the deaths were of children under five.
The class comprises 8 orders, according to the system of organs
affected.
Order 1. Nebvous System.—Diseases of the nervous system
caused 316 deaths (19 more than in 1879), including 113 of
children under five years. Two-hundred-and-fifty-seven of the
deaths were in the Town sub-district, and only 59 in Brompton—
a disproportion in favour of the latter sub-district as great as that
previously referred to in relation to tubercular diseases. Cephalitis
—inflammation of the substance of the brain, as meningitis, already
referred to, is of the coverings of the brain, was the cause of 7
deaths. "Brain disease" was returned in 62 instances (8 of them
in Brompton), insanity in two, and epilepsy in eight. Apoplexy
and paralysis, for the most part diseases of the later periods of
life, were the causes of 80 and 44 deaths respectively. Of these
124 deaths 25 occurred in Brompton, and 109 were of persons
above 45 years of age. Convulsions—a symptom in many
diseases, rather than a disease, of infancy was returned as the
cause of 107 deaths, only 19 of them in Brompton. All but two
of these deaths were of children under five years, 80 of them
occurred in the first year. Convulsions as a cause of death, is
frequently returned in connection with specified diseases, and
especially with "teething." The convulsions being a symptom only,
the deaths in these circumstances are classified to the primary
diseases named, or to dentition as the case may be. The