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Pyamia and Septicemia were the causes of 3 deaths ; all in
the Town sub.district. There were 7 deaths from these causes in
1885.
Puerperal Fever was the registered cause of 19 deaths,
against 26, 14, and 7 in 1883.4.5; 13 of them in the Town sub.
district. Six of the deaths were of women between 15 and 25
years of age, eleven between 25 and 35, and two between 35 and
45. In addition to these 19 deaths, fifteen deaths, all of them in
the Town sub.district, were registered, as having occurred in
"childbirth," as against 3, 7, and 9 in the three preceding years.
Puerperal fever is a communicable disease depending on "blood
poisoning," whereas other causes of death connected with childbirth,
are, so to say, accidental, e.g., haemorrhage ("flooding").
The deaths registered as having been caused by diseases and
accidents associated with parturition (34) were equal to 5.8 per
1,000 live births, against 4 per 1,000 in 1885.
Class 2.—Parasitic Diseases
Includes Thrush and Other Vegetable Parasitic Diseases, one
death: and "Worms, Hydatids, and other Animal Parasitic
Diseases,"no death.
Glass 3.—Dietetic Diseases
Were the causes of 21 deaths, 16 of them in the Town sub.
district. Want of breast milk was the cause of one death. To
Scurvy no death was assigned. Delirium tremens was the cause
of ten deaths (against two in 1885), and Chronic alcoholism of a
like number of deaths, against four in 1885. Of these 20 deaths 15
were registered in the Town sub.district. It is scarcely necessaiy,
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 more prominent
position in the "Bills of Mortality"; but many deaths due to the
abuse of alcohol get certified, and therefore are classified, to
visceral and degenerative diseases, caused or aggravated by
"drink." Man's ingenuity in the discovery of alcohol is