64 MR. J. BAXENDELL ON CHANGES IN 



returns^ the deaths o£ males under five years of age were 

 66*5 per cent, of the total number of deaths at all ages; but 

 in the five years 1869-73 the proportion had fallen to 

 31*0 per cent. For females the numbers were respectively 

 72*2 and 36*1 per cent. The proportion of deaths at all 

 ages above five years was therefore more than doubled. 

 But taking the deaths between the ages of 25 and 65, the 

 proportion was more than trebled in the case of males, and 

 more than quadrupled in the case of females ; and taking 

 into account the increase in the total mortality at all ages, 

 it appears that the death-rate of males between the ages of 

 25 and 65 years was 4*46 times greater in 1869-73 than 

 in 1848-52, and of females 5*14 times greater. These re- 

 markable facts seem to indicate that this loathsome disease 

 has in some way become very much modified and more 

 virulent, or that some cause has been in operation which 

 has rendered the adult portion of the population very much 

 more susceptible to its attacks; audit is evident, therefore, 

 that it is a much more serious evil to society than it was 

 twenty or thirty years ago, not only because the mortality 

 from it lias greatly increased, but also because a very much 

 larger proportion of that mortality now falls upon the pro- 

 ducing classes. In spite of sanitary improvements and the 

 protection supposed to be afforded by the application of a 

 special preventive, the death-rate from it has increased at 

 all ages without exception, but more especially at those ages 

 when it is most important for the general interests of society 

 that life should be saved. 



The general conditions which tend to produce an outbreak 

 of small- pox also favour the development of scarlet fever; 

 so that if a marked increase takes place in one, an equally 

 marked increase may soon be expected to appear in the 

 other; and yet, while scarlet fever has been favourably 

 influenced by ordinary means and treatment, small-pox 



