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of the deaths were of women between 15 and 25 years of age, 7
between 25 and 35, and 3 between 35 and 45. In addition to
these 14 deaths, 9 deaths, seven of them in the Town sub-district,
were registered as having occurred in " childbirth," as against 3 in
1883. The distinction between these two classes of cases is,
that whilst puerperal fever is a communicable disease depending
on " blood poisoning," deaths registered as caused by childbirth
simply, are, so to say, accidental, a common cause being hasmorrhage
(" flooding "). The total deaths registered as having been
caused by the diseases and accidents associated with parturition
(23) were equal to 0.52 per cent, on registered live births.
Class 2.— Parasitic Diseases
Includes Thrush and Other Vegetable Parasitic Diseases; 7
deaths, all of them in the Town district, and under one year of
age, and " Worms, Hydatids, and other Animal Parasitic
Diseases," one death, from hydatids.
Class 3.— Dietetic Diseases
Were the causes of 15 deaths, 11 of them in the Town subdistrict.
Want of breast milk was the cause of one death. To
Scurvy no death was assigned. Delirium tremens was the cause
of one death. Chronic alcoholism was the registered cause of 13
deaths, ten of them in the Town sub-district. It is scarcely
necessary, perhaps, to remark that, if all the deaths due, directly
and indirectly, to the immoderate use of intoxicating liquors could
be ascertained, "Alcoholism" would occupy a much more prominent
position in the "Bills of Mortality;" but many deaths
due to the abuse of alcohol get certified, and therefore are
classified, as due to visceral and degenerative diseases, secondary
in their character, but which have been caused or aggravated by
" drink." Man's ingenuity in the discovery of alcohol is accountable
for a large share of the misery of his race. "Drink" is the
fruitful parent of vice and crime, as well as being the cause of