M 143
From the above table, it will be seen that fatal Tuberculosis is increasing in the Colony; the 1928 total is the highest yet recorded and the percentage of total Chinese deaths is as high as 17.4%.
This emphasises the recommendations made in this report under Respiratory Diseases.
(3) Senility.
"Senile decay", or merely "old age", is a very unsatisfactory cause of death (if it can be classed as a "cause" at all) but it accounts for the next highest figures in the death registers.
It is a convenient refuge for some Practitioners who, with the opportunity and means at their disposal, would find, in the great majority of cases, some terminal disease to account for death. It is quite common to get a certificate signed up as "Senility" in persons of under seventy years of age.
The usual Secondary cause of "Exhaustion" is no better. The number of old people who actually die, naturally, with healthy but worn out organs must be very few, especially under the conditions in the Far East; and it is significant that we very rarely get this diagnosis from the Mortuaries or the Hospitals.
That this is highly unsatisfactory and misleading is shown by the following very high figures, registered for 1928:
Chinese Non-Chinese
1,046 7
Total
1,053
I usually return Certificates for revision, under this heading, in the case of persons under 70 years of age; but, even so, the matter needs further attention.
(4) Intestinal diseases.
Of these, "Enteritis" accounts for a large number of deaths. The Certificates give a number of varieties, such as "Gastro-Enteritis"; "Ileo-enteritis;" and "Diarrhoea" (the latter, being a symptom only, is usually revised).
These are here grouped together but, as many of them are under one year of age and obviously refer to Infantile Diarrhoea and Nutritional disturbances, they are divided into those under one year and those over this age.
Many of the latter would, probably, on investigation, prove to be dysenteric or of other specifically infective character.