Sessional_Paper_1903 — Page 166

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The deaths occurring in persons employed in the Mercantile Marine or in Foreign Navies were 28 in number and the causes of death were as follows:-

Cholera,

Enteric Fever,..

Bubonic Plague,

Dysentery,

Malarial Fever,

Beri Beri,

Drowning,

...

Alcoholic Poisoning,

Cerebral Softening,

6

2

Pneumonia, Phthisis,

1

Hepatic Abscess,..

Cirrhosis,

1

Peritonitis,

1

Sprue,

1

Cancer of Tongue,

1

"

"Jaw,

Forward,

.16

5

1

1

1

1

1

1

Carried forward............16

The death from Beri-Beri occurred in a Spaniard.

1

28

The total number of deaths, therefore, which occurred among the non-Chinese resident Civil community was 263; allowing for the non-Chinese floating population, this is equal to a death-rate among the resident non-Chinese population of 29.9 per 1,000 as compared with 31.6 during the previous year.

The principal causes of death among the non-Chinese resident Civil community were as follows:-

Cholera,

Pneumonia,.

Phthisis,

General Tuberculosis,.

.31

Bubonic Plague,

.23

Malarial Fever,

.22

Heart Disease,

..20

Enteric Fever,

...15

.15

..15

8

UNCERTIFIED DEATHS.

During the year there were 470 deaths registered in the City of Victoria, of Chinese who had not been attended by a medical man, as compared with 563 during the previous year, and 533 in 1900; in every such case the relatives of the deceased are interviewed and the dead bodies inspected and where necessary sent to the Government Mortuary for further examination, with the result that no less than 35 cases of Bubonic Plague, 21 of Cholera, I of Small-pox and 1 of Diphtheria were thus discovered and the premises dealt with in the usual manner.

I append a statement of the actual causes of death in the above-mentioned 470 cases :—

Anæmia,

1.

Forward,.

..163

Anæmia Perniciosa,

1

Heart Disease,

9

Apoplexy,

1

Hernia,

4

Beri-beri,

19

Inanition,

8

Blood Poisoning,

1

Jaundice,.

3

Bright's Disease,

5

Malarial Fever,

18

Bronchitis,

83

Nephritis,

2

Cancer of Breast,

1

Old Age,

55

Child Birth,

6

Phthisis,

..143

Cholera,

21

Plague,

35

Convulsions,

7

Pleurisy,

2

Debility,

Ι

Peneumonia,

10

Diarrhoea,

11

Scrofula,

1

Diphtheria,

1

Small-pox,

1

Dropsy,

2

Syphilis,

1

Fatty Degeneration of Heart,

1

Tuberculosis,.

3.

Hæmoptysis,

1

Unknown (Decomposed),

12

Carried forward....................

.163

Total....... .470

AGE DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS.

The number of deaths of infants under one year of age was 1,199, or 17.6 per cent. of the total deaths, a rate which is far too high even for a tropical climate. The infant death-rate among the non-Chinese community during the year has been 196.6 per 1,000 as compared with 129.2 per 1,000 in the previous year, but among the Chinese population the deaths of infants under one year of age. exceed the total number of Chinese births, i.e., 966, and even when all deaths under one month are assumed to have been unregistered the infant death-rate works out at 796 per 1,000; this means either that the Chinese infant death-rate is enormous or that a considerable number of births remain unregistered or perhaps that a number of infants are brought into the Colony from the mainland and die here. In either case the condition is a most unsatisfactory one and calls for some remedial measure.

The great bulk of these deaths of Chinese infants are attributed to diseases of a convulsive type, but further investigation is needed into the question of the causation of this high death-rate among Chinese infants.