View report page

116
pre-existeuce of spasm of the glottis may have been inferred:
but it is quite possible, to say the least of it, that the children
had been suffocated by over-lying—a remark even more applicable
to deaths attributed to convulsions, in the case of children found
dead in bed. The cause of death in such cases—whether spasm
of the glottis or convulsions be returned—can be only guessed-at
when the child has not been seen to die; for examination after
death cannot prove the occurrence of spasm during life, and their
is no pathological condition which would enable one to say
positively that a child had suffered, still less that it had died,
from convulsions.
2. Diseases of the Organs of Special Sense (e.g., of
Ear, Eye, Nose) are comprised in this Order. Four deaths were
registered from these causes.
3. Circulatory System.—The deaths due to diseases of
the organs of circulation, heart and blood vessels, were 220,
against 200, 196 and 188 in 1887-8-9: 169 were registered in
the Town sub-district, and 51 in Brompton. The quarterly
numbers were 54, 50, 48 and 68. To specified forms of
disease 52 deaths were assigned, viz., Pericarditis 6, Valvular
Diseases of Heart 30. Aneurism was the cause of 13 deaths,
and Embolism, Thrombosis, of 3. Other Diseases of Heart
caused 164 deaths, and Other Diseases of Blood Vessels, 4 deaths.
4. Respiratory System.— he deaths from diseases of
the chest, Phthisis being excluded, were 745, against 649, 622
and 470 in 1887-8-9, and 25.1 per cent. of total deaths. Of
this number 612 were registered in the Town sub-district and
133 in Brompton. The quarterly numbers were 292 and 239
in the first and fourth, or colder quarters, and 143 and 71 in
the second and third, or warmer quarters. The deaths under five
years of age were 263, or 35.3 per cent. (against 42.7, 42.6
and 32.4 per cent. in 1887-8-9); and at fifty-five and upwards,
307, or 41.2 per cent. of the whole number (against 41.7, 39.2
and 39.4 per cent. in 1887-8-9). These diseases are thus seen