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12
The ages at death, as a rule, afford a very good criterion of
the salubrity and well-being of the inhabitants of any given
locality. Hitherto the mortality of children under 1 year old
has been unusually small, but we must expect a larger rate for
the future as there have been a very great number of small
houses erected in the District, and it is well known that the
rate of death in infants is much higher amongst the poorer than
the wealthier classes. But this is not the only reason for the
unusually large proportion of deaths in infants during last year,
as an examination of the table at the end of the report shows
an immense increase in the deaths of infants from diarrhoea.
This is a warning that the greatest care must be exercised in
removing all causes which may induce diarrhoea, in remedying
any sanitary defects which may exist, and in carefully selecting
proper food for children. How far bad milk may have assisted
in causing this increased mortality I cannot say, but I did not
discover any adulterations except water and salt in any of the
specimens of milk which I examined during last year. The
mortality between 1 and 5 years of age was less in 18C5 than
in 1864, so that the total under 5 varied very little, the rate in
1864 having been 38.7, and in 1865 39.1 percent. A comparison
of the deaths under 5 years of age from diarrhoea and
scarlet fever entirely account for the excess of deaths in
children during 1865. The great excess of deaths from fever
in 1865 between five and fifteen years of age is very striking,
but arises chiefly from the outbreak at the Orphan Asylum, and
the prevalence of Typhoid instead of any other form of fever.
The deaths from fever above fifteen years of age were fewer
than usual. The variations in the mortuary rate at the other
ages are scarcely worth notice, except that an unusually large
proportion died in 1865 between 75 and 85 years of age as
compared with 1864. There were no less than 236 deaths of