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66
registered as illegitimate: all but 7 of them occurred in the
Town sub-district. Of the 78 children, only 14 outlived the
first year, and of these 10 died in the second year. The
causes of death as registered were, scrofulous and wasting
diseases, 19 deaths; want of breast milk, debility, 2; premature
birth, 5; thrush, 1; diseases of the digestive system, 3;
diseases of the lungs, 14; diseases of the brain, 12, (including
convulsions, 10); zymotic diseases, 10; (viz: measles, 2;
scarlet fever, 1; and diarrhœa, 7); syphilis, 8; and violence,
4; (suffocation, 3; run over by a cab, 1).
A large proportion of illegitimate children are brought up
by hand, and by strangers: the evidence of improper feeding,
and absence of maternal care, is sufficiently apparent in
the above list of diseases.
At sixty years of age and upwards there were 699 deaths,
80 more than in 1882, equal to 25.5 per cent. on total deaths,
the proportion in all London being 21.6 per cent.
The deaths in the first and fourth, or colder, quarters of
the year, exceeded the deaths in the second and third, or
warmer, quarters by 251: in 1880, 1881, and 1882, respectively,
the difference was 240, 120, and 355, in favour of the
warmer quarters.