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sewage-tainted houses; and, in a word, by whatever is inimical
to the maintenance of a typical condition of health. The
cases that occur amongst the well-to-do classes are frequently
traceable to the influence of heredity: modern researches, however,
which have thrown great light on the origin of tubercle,
raise a presumption that Tuberculosis may be an infectious
disease— a specific fever of slow progress, with a veiled resemblance
to other specific eruptive fevers, and like them depending
for its origin on its own special "bacillus": we are encouraged
to hope, therefore, that a remedy may ultimately
be found for this scourge of the human race. Tubercular
diseases were the registered causes of 293 deaths in 1892
(against 320, 369 and 343 in the preceding three years respectively):
viz., 226 in the Town sub-district, and 67 in
Brompton; 72 of the deaths being those of children under
five years of age. The numbers in the four quarters of the
year respectively, were 84, 81, 67 and 61; or 145 in the winter,
and 148 in the summer quarters. In a few instances Phthisis
was returned as the cause of death in earliest infancy, a period
of life at which the tubercular diathesis commonly manifests
itself in other parts of the body than the lungs, e.g. brain,
bowels, &c. Such deaths have been classified, in Table III.,
with those certified from "Other forms of Tuberculosis,
Scrofula" the total being 33 (of which 23 occurred under five
years of age), including 8 registered in the Brompton subdistrict,
Tabes Meseuterica, popularly known as "consumption
of the bowels,," was the cause of 21 deaths, including 2 in
Brompton, all of them under five years of age, and 16 under
one year. Tubercular Meningitis and Hydrocephalus (water
on the brain) were the causes of 37 deaths, 7 of them in
Brompton, and 28 under five years of age. Phthisis popularly
known as "decline" or "consumption," was the cause of 202
deaths: 5 between five and fifteen years of age, and 191
between fifteen and sixty-five; viz., 30,49, 59, 35 and 18 in the
five decades consecutively: 6 deaths were registered at ages
over sixty-five. The quarterly numbers were 60, 49, 47 and