66 



MR. J. BAXENDELL ON CHANGES IN 



Per cent. 



Dropsy 3 1 "4 



Asthma 252 



Enteritis 19*6 



Scrofula lyz 



Pneumonia i6-6 



Per cent. 



Hj'drocephahis ii"3 



Old age 8-1 



Convulsions 7'S 



Phthisis 7"» 



It has not been thought worth while, for the present at 

 leastj to include in these lists diseases which have increased 

 or decreased in fatality less than 7 per cent., or from which 

 the number of deaths averaged less than 2,500 per annum 

 during the last ten years. 



An analysis of the death-returns of a few of the more 

 important of the diseases in the above lists has yielded the 

 following results. 



Bronchitis. 



During the ten years 1854-63 the total number of deaths 

 caused by this disease was 277,335 ; and in the following 

 ten years it rose to 422,806. We have, then, 



(i^^?^-i-i28oVoo 



V277335 / -.o.-i 



1-1280 ""^-^^ * 



The increase of the death-rate from bronchitis therefore 

 amounted to 35* i per cent., or to a loss of no less than 

 109,972 additional lives, while the total number of lives 

 saved by the improvement in the whole class of infectious 

 diseases amounted to only 36,995, or one third of the extra 

 loss from bronchitis alone ; so that while all the sanitary 

 improvements of the last twenty years may be regarded as 

 having effected a saving of one life in every 134, the in- 

 creased mortality from bronchitis alone has resulted in a 

 loss of one in every 45. This great increase in the death- 

 rate from bronchitis is the more remarkable from the fact 

 that it has been gradual and steady, and appears to have 

 been but little influenced by changes in the character of 



