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15
in proportion to those attacked. It is associated
with diphtheria in the Tables of Mortality, of which
five cases were fatal. The prevalence of these diseases
in the early part of the year, induced me to
issue a handbill, which will be found in the
Appendix.
Although typhus was more prevalent in 1859, it
nevertheless presents a considerable less mortality
than the average of the last four years.
Turning to some other diseases, in the Tables
to which I have drawn your attention in previous
years, I would point out that phthisis carried off 100,
which is about the average for the last five years.
Diseases of the lungs present a considerable diminution.
The deaths, in 1858, were 151; whilst,
in 1859, they were but 117. At a future time,
when further data are supplied, it may be an interesting
question for inquiry, as to whether there
is not a relation between the numbers dying of
zymotic diseases—such as hooping cough and
measles—and those who die from the various forms
of disease of the lungs. It may be that those who
are predisposed to disease of the lungs, are those
who, on being seized with hooping cough or
measles, sink under these diseases, not so much
from the action of the poison of the disease, as
from their predisposition to lung disease.
There is one group of deaths which present in
our parish a very extraordinary increase, and which
I do not think I ought to pass over without notice.
I allude to the record of deaths by suffocation. Of