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19
diminished. Small-pox, too, is a disease which is
almost entirely within the control of prophylactic
measures ; and these are all encouragements for the
continued prosecution of sanitary works.
The influence of season on the mortality from
different diseases is shewn in the sixth table of the
appendix; and it will be observed from the statistics
of the last ten years, that hydrocephalus, infantile
convulsions, measles, whooping-cough, and croup,
have generally been most fatal in the spring quarters;
while tabes-mesenterica, scrofula, alvine disorders,
and scarlet-fever have been most severe in summer
and autumn—phthisis, and inflammatory affections
of the lungs, being the most marked diseases of
winter.
The sickness returns for the year have heen extracted
from the books of the Union, and they are a
little below the average for the last ten years, there
having been a notable decrease of several important
diseases, as, for example, continued-fever, which has
declined from an average of 631 cases in the year to
439 ; diarrhoea from 960 to 527, and small-pox from
88 to 10 ; but scarlet-fever has advanced in severity,
for last year there were 122 cases against an average
of less than a hundred. At the beginning of the
year fears were entertained of a probable severity of
relapsing-fever, but only 10 cases of it are recorded
in the parish medical books, and there have been no