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The above table shows the number of deaths which have been
registered from the seven most fatal epidemic diseases, viz:
small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough,
diarrhoea and fever. The mortality from small-pox was less
than the average, having been only 6, or less than 1 in each
3,500 deaths. Measles also caused an unusually small mortality,
viz: 22, whilst scarlet fever was very fatal, 98 deaths having
been registered from this cause. The deaths from diphtheria
were below an average, viz: 22; whilst whooping cough was
slightly above it, viz: 56, against an average of 53. Diarrhoea
was unusually fatal, having caused a mortality of 125, against
71 in 1864; whilst fever was less fatal than in 1864, having
caused a mortality of 75 against a corrected number of 80.
The rate of deaths from fever was rather more than 1 in 30
from all causes, which is by no means a large average. The
deaths registered from cholera were comparatively unimportant
5 out of the 7 deaths having occurred in children under 5 years
of age, I made enquiry in these cases, and came to the conclusion
that not one was true cholera but only severe diarrhoea
with great prostration. Cases of this kind are more or less