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temperance in all tilings, are powerful antidotes to the bane of
tubercle, which is fostered by dirt and squalor, by cold and nakedness,
by vice and intemperance, by the want of the proper
necessaries of life, by over-crowding in ill-constructed, unventilated,
and sewage-tainted houses, and, in a word, by whatever is
inimical to the maintenance of a typical condition of health. The
cases that occur amongst the well-to-do classes are frequently
traceable to the influence of heredity; modern researches, however,
which have thrown great light on the origin of tubercle, raise a
presumption that tuberculosis may be an infectious disease, a
specific fever of slow progress with a veiled resemblance to other
specific eruptive fevers: we are encouraged to hope, therefore, that
a remedy may ultimately be found for this great scourge of the
human race. Tubercular diseases were the registered causes of
441 deaths, viz., 355 in the Town sub-district, and 86 in Brompton;
140 of the deaths being of children under 5 years of age.
The numbers in the four quarters of the year respectively, were
106,102, 133, and 100; 206 in the winter and 235 in the summer
quarters. In a few instances "phthisis" was returned as the
cause of death in earliest infancy, a period of life at which the
tubercular diathesis commonly manifests itself in other parts of
the body than the lungs; e.g., brain, bowels, etc. Such deaths
have been classified, in Table 3, with those certified from "other
forms of tuberculosis, scrofula," the total being 39, (of which 28
occurred under five years of age), including 11 registered in
the Brompton sub-district. Tabes Mesenterica, popularly known
as "consumption of the bowels," was the cause of 38 deaths; one
only in Brompton; all under five years of age, and 26 under one
year. Tubercular Meningitis and Hydrocephalus, (water on the
brain), were the causes of 85 deaths, 19 of them in Brompton,
and 74 under five years of age. Phthisis, popularly known as
"decline,"or "consumption," was the cause of 279 deaths; 18 of
them between 5 and 15 years of age, and 255 between 15 and
65; viz., 33, 78, 79, 45, and 20, in the five decades respectively:
six deaths were registered at ages over 65. The quarterly
numbers were 70, 69, 70, and 70; of the total, 224 belong to the