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94
human race. Tubercular diseases were the registered causes of
440 deaths, viz., 354 in the Town sub.district, and 86 in
Brompton ; 164 of the deaths being of children under 5 years of
age. The numbers in the four quarters of the year respectively,
were 105, 95, 121, and 119; 224 in the winter and 216 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 68 (of which 51
occurred under 5 years of age), including 15 registered in the
Brompton sub.district. Tabes Mesenterica, popularly known as
" consumption of the bowels," was the cause of 52 deaths; including
five only in Brompton; 50 of them under five years of
age, and 39 under one year. Tubercular Meningitis and Hydrocephalus
(water on the brain), were the causes of 74 deaths, 15 of
them in Brompton, and 62 under five years of age. Phthisis,
popularly known as "decline," or "consumption "was the cause
of 246 deaths; 6 of them between 5 and 15 years of age, and
225 between 15 and 65; viz., 37, 66, 64, 33, and 25, in the
five decades consecutively : fourteen deaths were registered at ages
over 65. The quarterly numbers were 64, 56, 62, and 64. Of
the total, 195 belong to the Town sub.district and 51 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; less than a fifth of them 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,