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rheumatism as the primary cause, though the connexion may
have been overlooked, or is not recognised in the medical
certificate of the cause of death. In the new classification
deaths due to rheumatic disease involving the heart are distinguished
from ordinary rheumatism without such complication.
Gout was the cause of 5 deaths and Rickets of 2.
Cancer, (Malignant disease), was accountable for 128 deaths;
103 in the Town sub-district, and 25 in Brompton. The
deaths from cancer appear to be on the increase, the numbers
in the previous nine years having been 67, 74, 69, 88, 79, 95,
90, 112, and 92. The deaths in the Brompton sub-district are
usually, but were not in 1883, more numerous proportionally
to population than in the relatively poorer Town sub-district.
Cancer, in fact, is quite as prevalent in well-to-do
people, more prevalent, perhaps, than amongst the poorer
classes. The parts of the body most commonly affected are
the viscera or internal organs; in women, the uterus and the
breast; the malady, moreover, being most common in later
life. One hundred and nine of the deaths took place at ages
above 45. It may be well to mention that in Table 3,
(Appendix), the deaths of persons who had cancer are
classified to cancer irrespective of the question whether
any other disease was named in the medical certificate, and
of the question whether cancer was the immediate cause of
death.
Purpura, Hemorrhagic diathesis, caused three deaths;
Ancemia, Chlorosis, and Leucocythemia, 4 deaths; Glycosuria,
Diabetes mellitus, 13 deaths, 7 of them in the Brompton subdistrict.
The remaining diseases in this Class belong to the group
generically known as
Tubercular, and they are amongst the most important
with which sanitarians have to deal, the degree to which they
prevail in a given district being regarded, in some sort, as a
test of the healthiness or otherwise of the people. Generally
hereditary, these diseases are nevertheless susceptible of