View report page

9
value of £1,078,512, increase, £497,804; for St. John and
St. James, of £501,704, increase £136,692.

SUMMARY OF VITAL STATISTICS, 1880.
The year 1880 was, on the whole, a healthy one, but the early
part of it was characterized by severe weather which left its mark
on the vital statistics indicated by a sharp rise in the rate of
mortality in January and February, the deaths of aged persons,
and the deaths at all ages from chest diseases having been
excessive. The mean temperature of the air during the four
weeks ended January 31st, was 31.7 Fahr., or 7.6 below the
decennial average. The death-rate for the month (23.6) was 2.8
per 1000 above the average: seventy-three persons died at 60
years of age and upwards; and from chest diseases (excluding
phthisis) there were so many as 108 deaths, including 71 from
bronchitis. There was nothing extraordinary in this mortality,
however, regard being had to the weather; for, as I have frequently
pointed out, long continued severe cold, especially when associated
with fogs, is always followed by a rise in the death-rate and
by an excessive senile mortality, the most frequent cause of death
being bronchitis. In February the mean temperature of the air
was 410,6, or 2.5 above the average, and yet the death-rate,
Metropolitan and local, exhibited a considerable increase even
as compared with January, and on the decennial average—
an increase dependent on the severe weather, cold and foggy,
which had prevailed, especially at the end of January—for the
effects of past severe weather are felt long after the commencement
of a beneficial change. The successive weekly returns showed this
very clearly in an increased death-rate, and especially in the fatal