Sessional_Paper_1908 — Page 501

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AGE DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS.

The number of deaths of infants under one year of age was 1,606 or 22:9 per cent. of the total deaths, as compared with 19-4 per cent. in 1906 and 23-3 per cent. in 1905.

The Infant Mortality amongst the Non-Chinese community during the year was 87 per 1,000 as compared with 157 per 1,000 in 1906 and 119 per 1,000 in 1905.

Arpong the Chinese population the known deaths of infants numbered 1,580, while only 1,124 Chinese births were registered. Taking the corrected birth figure to be 2,803 this gives an infant mortality of 564 per thousand. The Census return for 1906 showed 1.329 Chinese infants under one year of age, and 14,980 Chinese children between the ages

of one year and five years, it is very evident therefore that the majority of these children are not born in the Colony but are brought here from the mainland of China.

DISEASES.

Respiratory Diseases.

The total number of deaths from these diseases for the year was 1,825 of which 34 were among the Non-Chinese community leaving 1,791 among the Chinese population ; 365 out of this total occurred in infants under one year of age.

Phthisis alone accounts for 669 deaths of which 655 were Chinese. Pneumonia cause l 689 deaths of which 680 were Chinese.

The death-rate among the Chinese from Respiratory Diseases was 5.8 per 1,000 as compared with 5-1 per 1,000 in the previous year and 44 per 1,000 in 1905; that for Phthisis alone was 2:1 per 1,000 as compared with 2.6 per 1,000 in 1906. The heavy death- rate from Pneumonia suggests that possibly some of them may have been occasioned by the Plague bacillus.

The deaths from Phthisis amongst the Chinese were 9.6 per cent. of the total deaths amongst that community.

Nervous Diseases.

The number of deaths under this heading for the year 1907 was 522 of which 424 were of Chinese children under 5 years of age, 290 of these being infants of one year old or less. These deaths of Chinese infants comprise 207 deaths from Tetanus, Trismus and Con- vulsions, 82 deaths from Meningitis and one from Hydrocephalus. The figures compare very favourably with those of the previous year, when the total deaths under this healing amounted to 746.

Malarial Fever.

The total number of deaths from Malarial Fever during the year was 379 of which 18 were Non-Chinese, 14 being from the civil population, one from the Mercantile Marine and 3 from the Troops.

In the City the districts in which there has been most Malaria are Health Districts 2 and 9 with 25 and 34 deaths respectively, the total number for the whole City being 138.

In the whole of Kowloon there were 191 deaths, while in the villages of Hongkong there were 203 deaths from this disease.

Anti-malarial measures were first inaugurated in this Colony in 1899 although the work proceeded very slowly for the first year or two.