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53
(a) Age Incidence at Death.
Of the 77 deaths of infants under one year, 20 occurred in
infants under three months, 23 in the second three months, and 34
in the last six months of the first year. The distribution
was therefore fairly uniform in each trimester of the first
year. The Registrar-General's latest returns (1903) show that
this disease as a rule has the heaviest incidence of fatality in the
second trimester, and declines in the third and fourth. The Finsbury
figures do actually show the same feature but not in a marked
degree.
(b) The Relation of Season.
The main effect of season shows itself in the third quarter of the
year and depends upon dryness and heat. A hot dry Summer
favours the occurrence of the disease; a cool, wet Summer, or a
Summer that is either cool or wet, exerts an unfavourable effec
on the occurrence of the disease.
In 1901 there were in Finsbury in the Summer quarter 93 deaths
from Epidemic Diarrhœa. The Summer was a hot one, the maximum
temperature of the air rising as high as 68.4° F., and having a mean
throughout the quarter of 61.7° F. The rainfall was very small (4.63
inches.)
In 1902 there were in the Summer quarter 61 deaths of infants
from Epidemic Diarrhoea. The Summer was a dry one (only 6.02
inches of rain fell), but it was also a cool Summer, the mean
temperature of our four-foot earth thermometer never rising
higher than 57.5° F., and the temperature was above 58° F. on only
three successive weeks.
In 1903 there were in the Summer quarter 58 deaths of infants
from this disease. The Summer was a warmer one than that of 1902,
the maximum temperature of the four-foot earth thermometer, rising
to 59° F., and being above 58° F. on nine successive weeks. But the
rainfall was exceptionally heavy, as much as 15.56 inches of rain falling
in the quarter, as compared with 6 inches in 1902.
In 1904 the Summer season was warm and dry. The temperature
of our four-foot earth thermometer rose to 61° F., and had an average
of 59.1 F., and was for nine successive weeks above 58° F. The rainfall
was only 4.88 inches. The conditions were, therefore, favourable
to the occurrence of the disease, and, in point of fact, 95 deaths of