HH62/45/61

Transcription

[Page] 6

Diseases of the Digestive system, (and to those may be added anæmia, which
often proceeds from constipation), cause a large amount of illness, in some parts
amounting to 27% of the total sickness, and 4.4% of the total deaths. In this class
of diseases it is expected that sanitation will bring a marked improvements to Public
Health, and by the education of the rising generation to habits of regularity a large
factor in causation of these diseases will be eliminated.
Consumption and other tubercular diseases caused 6.6% of the total sickness
amongst the cases reported, and 9% of the total mortality of the District. Now
that it has been proved that tubercular disease is infectious, it behoves parents or
guardians to exercise a very careful watch over cases where the disease attacks the
lungs that the expectoration be carefully removed. There is no doubt that it
is from breathing the dried expectoration from a previous case that the disease has its
most frequent origin in the lungs. Spitting into handkerchiefs should be forbidden.
Porcelain spittoons should be used; these should contain a disinfectant, and should be
regularly cleansed by having boiling water poured into them. Where there is a case
of consumption, a fire should be constantly kept in the room and free ventilation
maintained; the patient should be in a single bed, and all overcrowding of the apart-
ment by visitors should be avoided. The old, and now nearly obsolete box-bed,
insanitary under all conditions, cannot be too severely condemned as the cause of a
great deal of consumption.
Rheumatic diseases account for 3% of the sickness, and cancer for 2% of the
same in the above returns, and for 5% of the total deaths.
Appended are Tabular Statements of the Sickness and Mortality in the District
during the year 1891. The first three Tables are in the forms required by the
Board of Supervision, and in the fourth is a detailed statement showing the Births
and Deaths (with causes of the latter) in the various Registration Districts into
which the Registrar-General has sub-divided the Perth District.
The local Registrars cannot be too highly commended for the unanimous manner
in which they have come forward to supply the data for these Tables.

JOHN T. GRAHAM, M.D.,
Chief District Medical Officer
February 29th, 1892.

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TABULAR STATEMENTS
OF
Sickness and Mortality
IN THE
PERTH DISTRICT.
1891.

[Note] 61