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72
course a certain proportion of the increase is due to
increase of population. The bulk of it, however, is
doubtless dependent on other causes.
In looking to the numbers of deaths occurring at
different periods of life, it appears that between the
ages of 5 and 30, and again between the ages of 60
and 70, deaths were slightly more numerous in 1877
than in 1878, but that at all other epochs of life the
mortality was greater in 1878 than in 1877, and that
the chief numerical difference between the returns lies
in the mortality of children under 5 years of age,
which iu I877 amounted to 1,111, whereas in 1878 it
readied the high figure of 1,667. The greater mortality
indeed of 1878, as compared with that of 1877,
is due mainly to the fact of the increased mortality
among young children.
Let us now look to the specific causes of death,
and see if they throw any light on the problem before
us. Under the heading of "Premature Birth and
Defective Vitality continuing from Birth," the deaths
for 1878 amounted to 232, and were more numerous
by 50 than those registered in 1877; under that of
"Hydrocephalus and Convulsions of Infancy," they
amounted to 276, or 84 more than in 1877; under that