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The next table is one of considerable interest as it shows the
causes of death in 1871 and the average for ten years. The first
thing which strikes us, is the excessive mortality from epidemic
diseases, viz., 800 or 28.4 per cent. of the whole against 20.8 per
cent. in former years. This great death rate was caused, as is
shewn in Table VI., by the excessive mortality from Small Pox
and the large number of deaths from Diarrhœa. The death rate
from Class 1 will scarcely be as low for the future as before, as
all the deaths from Fevers and Small Pox will now be included
in our returns, whilst many have been unavoidably left out
before, although they have been as far as possible allowed for in
calculating the per centage of deaths for each year. As a matter
of course, as the rate is so high for Class l,the proportion would
be smaller for all the other classes, although on comparing the
numbers with those for last year they will be found to be in
excess. Thus the deaths from Tubercular Affections in 1870
were 412 against 438 in 1871; from Diseases of the Inspiratory
Organs, 392 in 1870, to 441 in 1871, and from Affections of the
Digestive and Urinary Organs, 143 in 1870 to 161 in 1871, and
no less than 161 deaths from Premature Birth and Atrophy
against 140 in 1871. On the other hand, there were 164 deaths
registered as from Old Age in 1870 to only 144 in 1871.