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7
Table 3 is one of much importance, as it shows the rate
of death from all the chief groups under which deaths are
registered in this country. The diseases included in each class
will be found set out in the tables at the end of the report, so
that I need not enumerate them here; suffice it to say, that
class 1 includes diseases ordinarily termed epidemic, as well as
diarrhoea and rheumatism (diseases which vary in frequency
and fatality according to the temperature), erysipelas, croup,
carbuncle, remittent fever, and a few others. The mortality
from this class was 222 per 1000 deaths, against 212, which is
the average in Hackney for the previous 16 years. This is not
a large proportion of deaths from these causes when the
extremely large number of deaths from small-pox, and the very
small number of deaths from " old age " are taken into account.
I mention the latter because it is veiy evident that if an
unusually small number of deaths is registered from one disease,
it must have the effect of increasing the percentages of deaths
from other causes, even when the whole numbers are not greater
than usual. The number of deaths from diseases of uncertain
seat, viz., 120, bears the same average as for the 16 years,
whilst that from tubercular diseases was 403, or 162 per cent,
against an average of 16 9 per cent. This is satisfactory, as
one good test of the salubrity of a district is the rate which
deaths from consumption and other tubercular diseases bears to
the total death rate. It is not, however, to be taken as an
absolute rule that a low rate of death from these diseases is
per se an indication of a healthy state of a locality, becauso a very
large proportion of deaths from epidemic diseases, or of very
young children (who comparatively rarely die from tubercular
affections), would give a small percentage of deaths from
tubercular and other affections, and thus lead to an erroneous
opiuion as to the salubrity of the place. It is in fact difficult