58

| 4. Developmental... | Diseases of Infants | { Premature Birth... 1
Dentition ... 1
Atrophy ... 1
Debility ... 7
Natural Decay... 3

| Diseases of Adults... |

| 5. Volence ........ | Accident and Negligence ... | { Accidents 9
Gelatio ... 1

The deaths within the Nelson District
during the twelve months were 92, we have
tabulated them as to their causes above, from
the returns made to the Nelson Registration
Office, but from the fact of the name of the
diseases from which deaths take place, being
not invariably furnished by a Medical man,
we have not been able to attain to perfect
accuracy in naming them.

It is satisfactory to observe that continued
fever and diphtheria which assumed the form
of an epidemic in 1861 and 1862, coinci-
dently with the arrival of the Taranaki
Refugees, have greatly diminished in fre-
quency. Diphtheria occurs now only as a
sporadic disease, and like Asiatic cholera
has become an ordinary cause of mortality
in these colonies, as well as in Europe; were,
however, sanitary precautions less flagrantly
violated than they are in Nelson, even the
present small number of deaths from this
cause might be diminished. In making re-
search as to the preventable causes of this
disease (and it must be remembered that what
applies to this holds good with most other
Zymotic diseases,) we found that those fami-
lies which drink rain water enjoy compara-
tive immunity from it; that in certain dis-
tricts of the town (more particularly Toi-toi
Valley) where the diluvial drift in which the
wells are sunk is protected from the surface
impurities by a thin bed of impermeable clay
there is little of the disease, and that in the
district surrounding the present Port Office
where wells and privies are sunk in close
contiguity, in beds of permeable shingle,
the disease prevailed to the greatest
extent. These facts point significantly to
the necessity of a supply of pure drinking
water. Setting aside the question of supplying
water for fires and manufacturing purposes,
on which we have not to offer an opinion;
we may observe that were Artesian wells
sunk through the bed of clay, which underlies
the shingle bed on which the town is built,
into the diluvial drift below, a supply of
pure water sufficient for drinking purposes
would probably be obtained. Some months
ago a proposition before the Board of
Works for removing daily the refuse from
houses, privies, &c., could this scheme be
thoroughly carried out without undue moles-
tation of the public, it would postpone for
a time the necessity for a system of town
sewers which must otherwise shortly arise and
by removing one source of contamination from
the air and water, benefit greatly the public
health, in confirmation of this opinion we
may mention that we have subjected to a
microscopic examination numerous samples
of water taken from wells in the centre of
the town, and that in nearly all of them par-
ticles of cotton and muscular fibre were
present, indicating contamination by per-
meation from adjacent privies and drains. In
the event of any scheme for supplying the
town with water being adopted, care should
be taken that if derived from a low level it
is free from those organic impurities which
propagate Zymotic diseases; if from a ligh
level, from the mineral substances which in
mountainous countries are believed by
some medical men to be the cause of Goitre,
a disease which is slightly endemic in the
Waimea Districts.

Having pointed out the means by which
preventable diseases may be (though already
inconsiderable) further diminished in fre-
quency, it is satisfactory to be able to add
that the health of Nelson, owing to the dry-
ness of its air and soil, the regularity of its
sea and land breezes, and the infrequency of
cold winds and extremes of temperature, is
excellent. In our Hospital report, we have
referred to the absence of any deaths from
pneumonia (a very frequent cause of death
in England), and the beneficial influence
which this climate exercises on consumption
The following table, compiled from statistics
published by the General Government in
1862 and 1863, shows the ratio of deaths to
births in each of the Provinces during the
eight years ending December, 1862, which
is the most ready method of forming a com-
parative estimate of the health of different
populations; it will be observed that Nelson
occupies a very favourable position in this
table. Had we thought proper to make an
allowance for the epidemic imported with
the New Plymouth refugees in 1860-61,
Nelson would have stood much in advance of
the other Provinces, viz., 1 to 4.84.