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18
This table shows that there were 179 deaths from small-pox,
91 from measles, 58 from scarlet fever, 18 from diphtheria, 43
from whooping cough, 62 from fever, and 86 from diarrhoea.
The death-rate per 10,000 population being 11.2 from small pox,
57 from measles, 3.6 from scarlet fever, l.1 from diphtheria, 2.7
from whooping cough, 3.9 from fever, and 5.4 from diarrhcea,
being an excess for small pox and measles, but less than usual
from scarlet fever, whooping cough, fever, and diarrhcea. The
reduction, as regards scarlet fever and diarrhcea, being nearly
one-half. The number of deaths from small-pox was the largest
for any of the 10 years, with the exception of 1871, whilst that
from diarrhoea, after allowing for increase of population,
was less than in any of the other years included in the table. The
mean number of deaths from these diseases, in the ten years
1867-76, was 36.3 per 10,000 inhabitants, and in 1877, only
33.6 per 10,000, which shows how little effect is produced in the
death-rate from these diseases by the prevalence of one zymotic
disease only. It is true that if we had had a hot summer the
mortality from diarrhoea would have been greater, and the deathrate
from these causes have been about the usual average. The
mortality from whooping cough has fortunately declined, after
two years of unusual prevalence and it is to be hoped that
some years will elapse before such an epidemic occurs again.