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43
proportion to population, was higher in the week ended 7th of
August than it had been in any week since July, 1884, and in
the week ended August 16th, higher than it had been in any
week since July, 1876. During the four weeks ended August
14th, the deaths in the Metropolis from this cause were 1,925,
and 924 above the corrected average ; the deaths of children
under five were 1,849, including 1,588 in the first year of life.
In addition to the deaths certified from diarrhoea, 540 were
attributed to gastro-enteritis. These deaths, or very many of
them, now classified to enteritis, would in former days have
been classified to diarrhoea. The fatal cases of gastro-enteritis
under five years, in this parish, in the same four weekt; numbered
ten, in addition to those registered as due to enteritis.
Three deaths were attributed to English Cholera, and Choleraic
Diarrhcea ; the number of such deaths in London, as a whole,
during the four weeks was 65. The mean temperature of the
air during the three successive four-weekly periods, comprised
in the diarrhceal season, was 63°9, 65.8, and 58.2 Fahr.; being
4.3 and 2.1, above the decennial average in the first two
periods and 1.7 below average in the third period.
The question of the causation of infantile diarrhcea in hot
weather is one of much interest and not easy of solution. So
far as can be ascertained, this disease does not appear to have
prevailed to the same relative extent two centuries ago, there
being in the bills of mortality no disease named suggestive
of diarrhoea, specially fatal in the summer to infants of the
suckling age. In those days children, doubtless, were
generally nourished by their mothers ; the rule is not nearly
so general now. With regard to the deaths from this cause in
Kensington, I, with the assistance of Inspector Pettit, made
enquiry into 43 consecutive cases occurring under two years
of age, with the following results:—27 of the deaths were in
the north sanitary district, six in the north-east district, seven
in the north-west district, and three in the central district, two
of them to the north of Holland-park-avenue, and