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3. Circulatory System.—The deaths clue to diseases
of the organs of circulation, heart and blood vessels, were
173, against 188, 220 and 198 in the preceding three years respectively:
137 were registered in the Town sub-district, and
36 in Brompton. The quarterly numbers were 57, 43, 30
and 43. To specified forms of disease 59 deaths were
assigned, viz., Pericarditis, 4; Acute Endocarditis, 2; Valvular
Diseases of Heart, 41. Aneurism was the cause of 10 deaths,
and Embolism, Thrombosis, of 2. Other Diseases of Heart
caused 107 deaths, and Other Diseases of Blood Vessels, 7 deaths.
4. Respiratory System.—The deaths from diseases
of the chest, Phthisis being excluded, were 704, against 470,
745 and 853 in the preceding three years respectively, and 244
per-cent. of total deaths. Of this number 574 were registered
in the Town sub-district and 130 in Brompton. The quarterly
numbers were 352 and 163 in the first and fourth, or colder
quarters, and 128 and 61 in the second and third, or warmer
quarters. The deaths under five years of age were 244, or
34.6 per-cent. (against 32 4, 35.3 and 32.1 per-cent. in the preceding
three years respectively), and at fifty-five and upwards
305, or 43.3 per-cent. of the whole number (against 39.4, 412
and 44.3 per-cent. in the preceding three years respectively).
These diseases are thus seen to be most fatal at the extremes
of life. The prevalence of them varies considerably in
different years, depending on the degree of cold in winter and
the general character of that season: they are always most fatal
when fog, especially "London fog," is associated with low temperature.
There was good reason for believing that the epidemic
of Influenza was largely responsible for the fatality of this class
of diseases in 1891; the same remark does not appear to apply,
or not to the same extent, with regard to the deaths from
diseases of the respiratory organs in 1892. The fatal diseases
were Laryngitis, 8 deaths; Croup (transferred in the new classification
from "miasmatic "diseases), 10*; Emphysema, Asthma,
* Thirteen cases only of membranous croup were notified.
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