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5
HEALTH AND SANITARY CONDITION OF
THE ENTIRE DISTRICT.
The census of 1881 has put us in possession of the
means of marking our progress, in sanitary matters, in
a very much more satisfactory manner than we have
been able to do for several years. Deducting from the
figures announced to us by the Registrar General as our
present population, the amount of increase supposed to
have occurred in the interval, between the date of the
Census and the middle of 1880, we find the population
of the entire district at the latter date to have been
205,300. This greatly exceeds the estimated population
upon which our death and birth-rates were calculated
during the past few years, and renders the figures then
produced of less value for purposes of comparison. The
rates of increase, during the later years of the last
decade, exceed even the estimate formed from the
births, which we have shown to be more reliable than the
official method of averages, and completely alters the relation
of the figures then given.
The year has been a warmer one and almost as
moist as its predecessor. As might be expected Diarrhoea
was very prevalent. Respiratory diseases decreased in
severity. Scarlatina almost assumed epidemic proportions,