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Pyaemia and Septicemia were the causes of 7 deaths; 6 of
them in the Town sub-district. There were 7 and 3 deaths from
these causes in 1885-6.
Puerperal Fever was the registered cause of 17 deaths,
against 26, 14, 7, and 19 in 1883-4-5-6; 14 of them in the
Town sub-district. Two of the deaths were of women between
15 and 25 years of age, seven between 25 and 35, and eight
between 35 and 45. In addition to these 17 deaths, thirteen
deaths, eleven of them in the Town sub-district, were registered
as having occurred in "childbirth," as against 3, 7, 9, and 15
in the four preceding years. Puerperal fever is a communicable
disease depending on "blood poisoning," whereas other causes of
death connected with child-birth are, so to say, accidental, e.g.,
hemorrhage ("flooding''). The deaths registered as having
been caused by diseases and accidents associated with parturition
(30) were equal to 7.6 per 1,000 live births, against 5.8 per
1,000 in 1886.
Class 2.—Parasitic Diseases
Include Thrush and other Vegetable Parasitic Diseases, two
deaths; and "Worms, Hydatids, and other Animal Parasitic
Diseases,” two deaths.
Class 3.—Dietetic Diseases
Were the causes of 13 deaths, 12 of them in the Town subdistrict.
To Want of breast milk and Scurvy no death was
assigned. Delirium tremens was the cause of four deaths, against
ten in 1883, and Chronic alcoholism of nine deaths, against ten
in 1886. Of these 13 deaths 12 were registered in the Town
sub-district. It is scarcely necessary, 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 accountable for a large share of the