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inflammation of the lungs, affections of the brain, heart, stomach,
liver, &c., which are classed under the term "Local," caused a
mortality of 1392, or as many as 47.2 per cent., against 1299 iu
1874. The number of deaths from brain disease was 357, of
which 8.1 were registered from inflammation, 87 from apoplexy,
51 from paralysis, 92 from convulsions, and the remainder from
epilepsy. Diseases of the heart were credited with 187 deaths;
of the lungs 622 deaths; of the stomach and abdominal viscera
with 118 deaths; of the kidneys with 71, and other local diseases
with 37 deaths. By far the most fatal of these were inflammatory
diseases of the lungs, as 372 deaths were registered from
bronchitis, 199 from pneumonia and 13 from pleurisy. There
were also 46 deaths from liver disease, and 35 from nephria or
Bright's disease of the kidneys. The deaths placed in Class 4,
developmental, which include those caused by premature birth,
atrophy and debility, old age, congenital malformation, were not
so numerous as in 1874, as they were only 370, or 12.5 per cent.
in 1875 against 385 in 1874; and violent deaths were also less,
having been 85 against 94.
The ages at death varied rather considerably from the means
of the twenty-three years ending 1872, published in my report
for 1872, but correspond more closely with those of the ten
years—1866-1875, which will be found in Table 15 of the
Appendix to this report. Thus we see that out of the 2948
deaths, as many as 723 or 24.5 per cent. happened during the
first year of life, the average for the twenty-three years being
21.6, and for the last ten years 24.3. This increase in the proportionate
number of deaths amongst infants was to be expected,
because they are the first to suffer from increased density of
population, and from various other causes, such as bad food and
dress; the want of warm rooms in cold weather, and varying
amount of comforts. These matters will be referred to again, but
they are mentioned here because a large proportion of the new
residents are not of so good a class as those who lived here in
former years, and many of the children, therefore, do not receive
now as much care and attention as formerly. The mortality