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number, call for no special remark. And as regards the
deaths ascribed to fever, which were also not numerous, it
may be asserted that few, if any, were due to relapsing fever
or typhus, and that doubtless a good many of them were the
result of typhoid or entric fever.
The distribution of deaths, according to season, was
somewhat unusual. For the most part, the second quarter
of the year is the least fatal to life; then comes the third
quarter, then the first, the most fatal of all being the fourth
quarter. But in the year 1870, the first quarter of the year
was marked by a much higher mortality than any subsequent
quarter the third quarter was next in order of fatality, and
in the fourth quarter the deaths were unusually few: 665
deaths occurred in the first quarter, 614 in the third, 573 in
the third, and 510 in the second. The undue mortality of
the first quarter seems to have been largely owing to an un
usual fatality from acute pulmonary affections, and the comparatively
numerous deaths from hooping-cough, which
marked that season. The undue mortality of the third
quarter seems to have resulted mainly from the extensive
and fatal prevalence of diarrhæa, and other allied affections
of the bowels.
It may be mentioned here, that during the year 18 bodies
of children—newly-born, or a few weeks or months old—
were discovered in different parts of the parish, and that
some of these were proved to have been the bodies of
children who had been under the charge of the notorious
Mrs. Waters—the baby-farmer.
Sanitary operations.—The report upon sanitary operations
relates, not to the year 1870, but to the 12 months ending
March 25th, 1871.