View report page

75
57 under 5 years of age. Phthisis, popularly known as
"decline," or "consumption," was the cause of 277 deaths,
12 of them between 5 and 15 years of age; and 263 between
15 and 65, viz., 40, 75, 69, 51, and 28, in the five decades
respectively: two deaths were registered at ages over 65.
The quarterly numbers were 76, 69, 65. and 67; of the total,
220 belong to the Town sub-district and 57 to Brompton.
The deaths from tubercular diseases generally, were disproportionately
more numerous in the Town sub-district, less
than a fifth having occurred in Brompton, which contains
more than a fourth of the population, a fact which may be
explained, in part, by the relatively small proportion of
children, and of the poorest classes, in this sub-district. It
is probable that the deaths ascribed to these causes do not
comprise all the deaths really due to diseases indicating
the tubercular diathesis, and that many deaths of young
children classified to such causes as premature birth, atrophy,
debility, convulsions, &c., are primarily due to the scrofulous
taint. In many instances other diseases, e.g., of the lungs,
as bronchitis, pneumonia, &c., are associated with phthisis
in medical certificates of the cause of death, but all such
associated diseases are disregarded in Table 3 : when phthisis
is returned the death is classified to that heading, it being
assumed that the tubercular diathesis was underlying the
other disease or diseases, being in fact the primary cause of
death.
Class 5.—Developmental Diseases.
In this class, Premature birth is the assigned cause of 61
deaths; Atelectasis of 7, and Congenital malformation of 13.
Old age was the registered cause of 80 deaths; all but one
at ages over 65. Between 75 and 85 there were 40 deaths,
and 22 at ages above 85. The total deaths in this class
were 161, viz., 124 in the Town sub-district, and 37 in
Brompton.