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98
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatism of the Heart caused 18
deaths, four of them in the Brompton sub-district; Rheumatism,
two deaths. In fatal cases of rheumatic fever the immediate
cause of death, not unfrequently, is disease of the heart arising
in the course of the malady; and of the deaths certified from
heart disease at later periods of life, not a few might properly
be ascribed to rheumatism as the primary cause. But the connexion
between the two diseases is either overlooked or, it may
be, unknown to the certifying practitioner. In the new classification,
deaths due to rheumatic disease involving the heart are
distinguished from deaths due to rheumatism without such
complication. Gout was the cause of nine deaths (five of them
in the Town sub-district), and Rickets of five.
Cancer, Malignant Disease, was accountable for 121 deaths;
92 in the Town sub-district, and 29 in Brompton. Cancer
is on the increase in the country generally: possibly, however,
some portion of the increase in deaths classified to this cause
may be due to more accurate diagnosis. The deaths in Kensington
from this cause in the previous ten years were 79, 95,
90, 112, 92, 128, 117, 119, 128, and 117 respectively. Deaths
from cancer are usually more numerous, proportionally to population,
in the Brompton sub-district, than in the relatively poorer
Town sub-district. Cancer, in fact, is quite as prevalent,
probably even more prevalent, amongst well-to-do people, than
in the poorer classes. The parts of the body most commonly
affected are the viscera or internal organs: in women, the uterus
and the breast; the malady, moreover, being for the most part
one of later life. One hundred and four of the deaths took
place at ages above 45, and 12 between 35 and 45. It is proper
to mention that in Table 3 (Appendix) the deaths assigned to
cancer have been classified to cancer irrespective of the
question whether any other disease was named in the medical
certificate, or whether cancer was the immediate cause of
death.