The Causes of Mortality.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 201, 30 April 1887, Page 7

The Causes of Mortality.

A supplement to tho fifteenth annual report of the Local Government Board for 1886-7 contains the report of their medical officer. Among the subjects investigated, Dr. Buchanan summarises the results of public vaccination in England and Wales on children born in 1883. Of 890,000 children 9 2 percent, died without vaccination, and 8o"6 per cent, had been vaccinated. Of the thirty-four general local inquiries undertaken by the medical inspector, diphtheria outbreaks formed tho most frequent subject of investigation. Some uneasiness was caused oy the outbreak on several occasions in various localities of typhus fever. Isolation hospitals and sanitary precautions are recommended as effective remedies. The contaminated water supply of Ripon and York from the River Ore is the subject of grave comment, and is pointed out as a warning to similarly situated towns deriving their water supply from rivers polluted through mere wantonness. Reference is made to the outbreak of scarlatina, enteric fever, and diphtheria as resulting from the use of infected milk. An epidemic, which appeared quite recently at Wimbledon, of this character is at present the subject of inquiry. Dr. Buchanan attributes the increased mortality from smallpox in London to the presence of small-pox hospitals in densely- populated districts, and suggests that other means for reducing the chance of spreading infection should { be tried,