HH62/1/FIFE/55

Transcription

[page] 54

At Methilhill several cases of typhoid occurred, and in these cases
rules appropriate for disinfecting were issued, also disinfectants supplied.
Some of the cases intimated had been ill for a longer time than I con-
sidered it safe for the patients' removal to Hospital, and a great objec-
tion prevails in the district against removal to Hospital. This will be
overcome as the benefits of Hospital treatment are experienced.

CAUSES, ORIGIN, AND DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASES
WITHIN THE DISTRICT.

In this District only a few registrars have sent in statements of
mortality, and I am thus deprived of this means of information as to
what diseases have occurred and proved fatal. The District, like many
other places, has suffered severely from influenza, and this has raised
the death-rate, doubtless. In some of the parishes a great many old
people have succumbed from this cause.
Since the adoption of the Notification of Infectious Diseases Act,
42 cases of infectious disease have come to my knowledge.
In Auchtertool parish one case of erysipelas occurred.
In Ballingry four cases of scarlet fever.
Twelve cases of scarlet fever were intimated from Burntisland.
In Leslie one case of typhoid, and one of erysipelas, were notified.
Three cases of diphtheria, three cases of scarlet fever, and one of
enteric, occurred in Markinch.
In Scoonie one case of scarlet fever.
In Wemyss six cases of scarlet fever, six cases of typhoid, and three
cases of erysipelas, were intimated.
The cases intimated from Burntisland occurred at Binnend, and
the number is increased by the fact that six cases occurred in one house,
and they were all out of bed and convalescent when the cases were
notified.
Three cases of diphtheria occurred in the parish of Markinch - two
of these in a house where the sanitary conditions were as nearly perfect
as possible. It is well-known that many animals suffer from diphtheria;
and in the house I refer to a cat was ill, and was killed, as the suspected
source of infection. Unfortunately, I could not get possession of this
cat for the purpose of examining it. At Balcurvie, where the other
case occurred, the insanitary conditions existing there are sufficient to
account for the case.
The cases of enteric fever in Wemyss parish occurred at Methilhill,
and can be accounted for by defective drains and sewers, and by
accumulations of manure and offensive matters from pigstyes and hen
cribs. The water supply is good; but an improved system of sewers
is much needed for this village.
The parish of Wemyss has a large population, and only .4 of an
acre to each person, and, in consequence, there is a greater risk of
infectious diseases spreading, than, for instance, in Auchertool, where
there are 3.4 acres per person.

[page] 55

MORTALITY STATISTICS.

On account of the registrars not supplying me with mortality re-
turns, it is not possible for me to give any statement of death-rates from
all causes, and from special causes; and I have exhausted every means
likely to obtain these. This Report is accordingly deprived of the most
important information it should contain.
In the succeeding table are given the crude death-rates in all the
parishes in the district, from 1881 to 1890. It must be taken into con-
sideration that these rates being calculated on small populations,
statistical fallacies are apt to occur as a result. It will be observed that
in some years the death-rates are abnormally low, and in other years
abnormally high, and this is a result to be accounted for by the small
populations of parishes being taken as the basis for calculation. When
sustained high rates or low rates occur over several years, these are of
more significance.
The parishes of Auchtertool, Kennoway, Kinghorn, and Markinch,
show a high rate of mortality over many years.
In the parish of Wemyss and Buckhaven a very satisfactory
death-rate is shown, and this parish is one of the most overcrowded in
the District. The parish of Wemyss is one of the few parishes in Fife
where all the villages are provided with a gravitation water supply, and
most are provided with drains and sewers. The low death-rates may
justly be attributed to the attention to sanitation by the former Local
Authorities.
Assuming that a death-rate of 17 per 1000 is a normal one for dis-
tricts, mainly rural, we find that in the thirteen parishes of Kirkcaldy
District 50 per cent. of the total rates exceed this figure.

DISTRICT OF KIRKCALDY.
DEATH RATE IN VARIOUS PARISHES.

[table inserted]