34
account of the much greater expense, to leave for their own country when ill. The real death-rate among the Chinese is probably therefore considerably higher than the figures registered in this Colony testify.
Only three deaths from Plague occurred among the non-Chinese community all of them being Indians.
The principal causes of death (other than Plague) among the non-Chinese resident Civil population were :-
Enteric Fever...
.10
Phthisis,
Cholera,
1
Pneumonia,
Small-pox,
1
Dysentery,
5
Puerperal Fever,.
1
Apoplexy,
8
Influenza,
1.
Bright's Disease,
3
Malarial Fever,
4
Alcoholism,
Septicemia,
1
Beri-Beri,.
etc.,
etc.
One of these deaths from Beri-Beri occurred in a Japanese and the other in a Portuguese.
UNCERTIFIED DEATHS.
During the year the bodies of 177 persons who had died in the City without being attended by a medical man, were inspected by the Sanitary staff and enquiries made from the relatives as to the probable cause of death, the body being sent to the Public Mortuary for examination whenever any suspicious circumstances suggested that such a course was desirable.
The presumed causes of death were as follows:-
Asthma,
3
Old Age,
...35
Beri-Beri,
7
Paralysis,
I
Bronchitis,
13
Phthisis,
..58
Convulsions,.
3
Plague,
7
Heart Disease,
2
Pneumonia,
3
Marasmus,
4
Premature Birth,
1
Malarial Fever,
.... 1
Premature Labour,
1
Mammary Abscess, ...... 1
Umbilical Hæmorrhage, 1
Sent to Mortuary, 36.
The number of bodies dealt with in a similar manner in Kowloon is given in Dr. MACFARLANE's report, hereto appended.
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS.
The number of deaths of infants under one year of age was 1,207 or 197 per cent. of the total deaths. The infant death-rate among the non-Chinese community during the year was 76 per 1,000 as compared with 108·7 per 1,000 in 1903.
Among the Chinese population the deaths of infants numbered 1,187, which exceeds the total number of births registered. Taking however the corrected num- ber of births, this gives an infant mortality of 784 per 1,000. This is a very high figure and the infant mortality is undoubtedly high in the Colony among the Chinese community, though possibly not so high as the foregoing rate indicates, as many births escape registration while not a few infants are brought to the Colony from China and die here though they were, not born here. A large number of these infant deaths are due to diseases of a convulsive type which may depend for their origin on insanitary conditions generally, and more particularly on impro- per treatment of the umbilical cord after birth.
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