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8
SUMMARY OF MORTAL STATISTICS, ETC.
Following a year characterised by the lowest death-rate on
record (18.5 per 1000) the year 1890 does not shew to advantage
from the hygienic point of view. The death-rate (16.1), it is true,
was but little (0'2) above the decennial average (18'9), and the
mortality from the so-called "dangerous" infectious diseases—
scarlet fever, diphtheria, and enteric fever—was below the average;
but measles was more fatal than in any previous year, and the
deaths from whooping-cough exceeded the corrected average. The
epidemic of Influenza, in addition to the deaths primarily
attributed to it, was, as I believe, the underlying cause of many
deaths ascribed to diseases of the organs of the respiratory
system, at a time—January—when, owing to the unusual mildness
of the weather, the deaths from those diseases would, under
ordinary circumstances, have been below average.
In all but one of my thirteen four-weekly reports, in 1889,
I had to chronicle a death-rate below the average, while in 1890
the death-rate in seven of the four-weekly periods was in excess.
The lowest rate (11.8) was recorded in the four weeks ended
October 4th, the highest (22.4) in the four weeks ended January
25th, and the next highest (20.3) in the following four-weekly
period: these eight weeks, moreover, being those in which Influenza
was most prevalent, and diseases of the respiratory organs also.
The diseases of these organs were again very fatal at the end of the
year—the weather being cold—when, in my final report, I had to
chronicle the third highest monthly death-rate (19.1). No death
from small-pox or typhus or simple continued fever was
registered, but the total deaths from the principal diseases of
the zymotic class were 14 in excess of the average, after
correction for increase of population, the death-rate from these
diseases being 2.l per 1000 as against 1.5 in 1889. The
mean temperature of the air (48'6) was 0.7 below the average of
49 years.