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cause of death, not infrequently, 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 connection
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 6 deaths, and Rickets of
3, all of them in the Town sub-district.
Cancer—Malignant Disease, was accountable for 125 deaths;
84 in the Town sub-district and 41 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 90,
112, 92, 128, 117, 119, 128, 117, 121, and 138 respectively.
Deaths from cancer are usually more numerous, proportionally to
population, in the Brompton sub-district than in the relatively
poorer Town sub-district, and were conspicuously so in 1890.
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.
Thus 105 of the deaths took place at ages above forty-five, and
16 between thirty-five and forty-five. It is proper to mention
that in Table III. (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.
Anæmia was the cause of 7 deaths: Glycosuria, Diabetes
Mellitus, of 20 deaths, 10 in each of the cub-districts. No death
was registered from Purpura, Hemorrhagic Diathesis.