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Town sub-district and 55 to Brompton. The deaths from tubercular
diseases were, as usual, but not to the customary extent,
disproportionately more numerous in the Town sub-district, than
in Brompton; a fifth of them only 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 tubercular diseases do not
comprise all of the deaths originating in the tubercular diathesis,
and that many deaths of children classified to premature birth,
atrophy, debility, convulsions, &c., were primarily due to the
scrofulous taint. In numerous instances some other disease, e.g.,
of the lungs, as bronchitis, pneumonia, &c., was associated with
phthisis in medical certificates of the cause of death; but all such
associated diseases have been disregarded in the preparation of
Table 3, for when phthisis was returned the death is classified to
that heading, it being assumed that the tubercular diathesis was
underlying the other disease, and was in fact the primary cause
of death.
Class 5.—Developmental Diseases.
In this Class the total deaths were 160, viz., 121 in the
Town sub-district, and 39 in Brompton. Premature Birth was
the assigned cause of 59 deaths; Atelectasis of 3, and Congenital
Malformation of 9. Old Age was the registered cause of 89
deaths; all but three at ages over 65: between 75 and 85 there
were 50 deaths, and 25 at 85 and upwards.
Class 6.—Local Diseases.
The diseases in this Class, containing eleven Orders, named
after the systems or organs to which the diseases relate, were
accountable for 1,846 deaths, or 48.6 per cent. of the deaths from
all causes; 1,060 were registered in the Town sub-district, and
286 in Brompton ; 387 were of children under five years of age.