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30
REPORT
on the
SANITARY CONDITION OP SAINT MARY, ISLINGTON,
FOR JULY, 1859.
No. XXVIII.
The month of July, just terminated, has been remarkable for its excessive
heat, which has produced a rapid increase in the sickness and mortality of
London. The mean temperature of the month was 68.6° ; that of the second
week was 71.0° (9.3 degrees higher than the average temperature of the same
week in 43 years) and that of the third week was 69° (7.4 degrees above the
average.) During the three previous years the mean temperature of June,
July, or August, never exceeded 65.3°, and in no one week of these months
was a higher mean temperature attained than 68.3°. On Tuesday, (12th,) the
thermometer in the shade reached 92.5°, and on Monday (18th,) 93°.
The registered mortality of Islington, for the four weeks, amounted to 269,
the mean of the three last years being 189. One hundred and eighty of these
deaths were of persons below adult age.
In accounting for the exctss, a certain number of the deaths, especially of
young persons, must be referred to the direct influence of the extreme heat
upon the nervous system. It will be observed, on studying table 1, that the
cause of death of 14 children is stated to be hydrocephalus, and of 27 more
(only 2 of which were over 10 years of age) various other diseases of the
brain and nervous system, convulsions, inflammation and congestion of the
brain, &c., making a total of 41. In 1858 the number of children that died
from these causes was 14, and in the previous year only 7. In one instance
the death is distinctly returned " male aged 6 years, congestion of the brain
and convulsions from the heat of the sun ; " the illness only lasting 12 hours ;
this child died on July 14, the temperature of the two previous days having
reached 92° and upwards in the shade, and 115° in the sun.
Fifty-six deaths (all but 2 of infants) are referred to diarrhœa, dysentery,
and cholera. Large as this number is, it is smaller than might have been