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76
ASSIGNED CAUSES OF DEATH.
Having already (at page 18) treated of the deaths from the
" principal diseases of the zymotic class," I now proceed to deal
with the mortality from the remaining diseases; but before doing
so I think it right to mention that the classification of the causes
of death in the " Weekly Returns" of the Registrar-General
was considerably modified at the beginning of 1882. The list
of causes, in it s new form," as the Registrar-General stated in
his Annual Summary for that year, "is an abbreviation of the
much more detailed list which has been drawn up for use in the
' Annual Reports of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England,'
and which has been compiled in general accordance with the
classification of the Royal College of Physicians. The London
deaths, though they are only classified by the abridged list in the
Weekly Return, and iu the Annual Summary, will be afterwards
classified by the full list in the ' Annual Report of Births, Deaths,
and Marriages in England.' " Table 3 in my reports, prior to
1882, was framed upon the lines of the less abridged list of the
causes of death contained in the Annual Summary, and it was the
basis, to a large extent, of some other Tables. As it was not
possible to accept the more abridged list contained in the Annual
Summary for 1882, but, at the same time, desirable to frame
Table 3 in close accordance with the more detailed list drawn up
for use in the Annual Report, the Society of Medical Officers of
Health revised certain Tables, which they had framed for the sake
of uniformity, some ten years previously, and ultimately settled
the forms of Tables 1—5 inclusive, as they appear in the Appendix.
It results therefore that these Tables will be found to differ
to some extent from similarly numbered Tables in the annual
reports prior to 1882. With this explanation I pass on to deal
with the remaining diseases included in the " Class " of
Specific Febrile or Zymotic Diseases, which comprises
six "Orders," the first and second, "Miasmatic" and
" Diarrhoeal," including the diseases already dealt with.
Order 3, Malarial Diseases, includes Remittent Fever and
Ague; and Order 4, Zoogenous Diseases, includes Cowpox and