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15
deaths from all causes,—a mortality on the estimated population of 3.1
per thousand.
Class III.—LOCAL DISEASES.
Under this head are grouped the diseases of the various organs; it
is the largest of the classes. The total number of deaths recorded
was 1386, about one half of which were those of young children-
Order 1.—Nervous System, 339 deaths; of these Cephalitis caused
eleven; Apoplexy, 50; Paralysis, 41; Insanity, 48 (nearly all patients
at Bethnall House Asylum).
Under the head of Epilepsy are entered sixteen deaths; four of
these died from suffocation during the fit, and one from inflammation
of the tonsils in addition to the Epilepsy. Convulsions caused 128
deaths, all, except one, amongst young children—101 of whom were
less than one year of age. To various other diseases of the brain are
credited 45 deaths.
Grouping together the various convulsive diseases of children,
namely, Hydrocephalus (19), Infantile Meningitis (79), Convulsions
(127), and teething (19), we find there were 244. deaths, a mortality
of 12.1 per thousand children living under five years of age, or nearly
seventeen per cent, of the total number of children's deaths from all
causes.
The liability of an organ like a child's brain, rapidly growing and
developing as it is, to take on inflammation and disease is well known,
and must be taken into account when considering any plan for the
education of children. My own opinion is that no young child should
be forced to learn; and that to take tender little youngsters and herd
them together in stuffy or draughty schoolrooms for purposes of socalled
education, is fraught with danger, not only to their brains, but
to their bodies too, for no better plan of spreading infantile contagious
disorders could well be devised.
Order 2.—Organs of Circulation: 169 deaths were entered as
caused by diseases of these organs; four were from aneurism, two
from pericarditis, and the remainder from various diseases of the heart.
The deaths from rheumatic heart affection are recorded under the
head of Acute Rheumatism.
Order 3.—Respiratory Organs. As might have been expected
the cold damp winter largely increased the mortality from diseases of