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REPORT
ON THE
SANITARY CONDITION OF SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR NOVEMBER, 1858.
No. XX.
The mortality of the past month has been unusually high. Independently of the
strangers who have died in the several hospitals in the Parish,— the deaths of
231 persons havebeen registered. The mortality of November, 1856, was 194,
and that of last year, 198. The deaths registered in each of the four weeks were
44, 53, 61, and 73 respectively. The mortality of London generally in the
same weeks was 1217, 1349, 1487, and 1802; and of the Northern districts
alone, 268, 294, 313, and 358. The gradual increase in fatality, week by week,
has thus only been in accordance with a similar occurrence observed throughout
the Metropolis. Part of this high mortality is to be accounted for by the continued
prevalence of scarlet fever, especially in the Northern parts of London,
and pnrtly by the unusually inclement weather which November exhibited.
According to Mr. Glaisher, of the Greenwich Observatory, the mean temperature
of the air in the first w eek of the month was 43.3°, or 27 degs. below that
of the corresponding week in 43 years; in the second week it was 39.0°, or
5.3 degs. below the average; in the third week, 35.5°, or 7 degs. below the
average; and in the fourth week, 37.4°, or 3.9 degs. below the average. In
this last week, "Tuesday (November 23d), was the coldest day in Novembersince
November23d, 1827, and the mean temperature of Tuesday and Wednesday was
lower than that of any two consecutive days in November, so far back as
authentic records extend." On the 24th, the mean daily temperature was
26.5°, and on the 25th, it suddenly rose to 42.5°,