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99
[1907
RESPIRATORY DISEASES.
These diseases include Acute and Chronic Bronchitis, Pneumonia,
Pleurisy, and Asthma, and altogether caused 1,136 deaths, or 22 per cent. of
the deaths from all causes, and represent a death rate of 3.27 per thousand of
the population.
Bronchitis, Acute, caused 198 deaths, of which 83 were those of infants
under 12 months old, and were equal to a death rate of 0.57 per 1,000 of the
persons living in the Borough.
Bronchitis, Chronic. -The returns give 306 deaths, of which 127 were
males and 179 were females, and were equal to a death rate of 0.88 per 1,000 of
the population.
Pneumonia.—To this cause were ascribed 557 deaths, 296 being
those of males and 261 of females, and 153 being of infants under a
year old, a circumstance which, as has been frequently pointed out in former
reports, causes serious misgivings as to the care with which the little ones
are tended, because as they cannot expose themselves to atmospheric
influences, so frequently the originating cause of this ailment, they must
have been exposed by those in charge of them. Of course, it is not
intended to infer that even the best cared for do not at times contract
pneumonia, nevertheless, when one finds such a large number dying annually
from a cause which is more or less preventable, one naturally wants to know
how so many deaths have arisen, and becomes suspicious that they had
occurred through neglect of some kind or through ignorance.
Pleurisy caused 26 deaths, of which 12 were those of males and 14 of
females.
Asthma was the ascribed cause of 24 deaths, 15 males and 9 females.
Other Diseases of Respiration.—To these were ascribed the deaths
of 25 persons, of whom 8 were males and 17 females.