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that need be said of it is, that it is usually rather more prevalent in the spring than
in the autumn and winter, and that it is least prevalent in the summer. An analysis
of my records for 12 years, however, leads to the following conclusions:—1st. That
the spread of hooping cough is favoured by a mean temperature above 46°, and
especially by one between 57° and 60°. 2nd. That a mean temperature above 60°
is very unfavourable to the disease, and distinctly promotive of its decline when
epidemic. 3rd. That a mean temperature below 40° is also less favourable than
one between 40° and 46°, but more favourable to the spread of the disease than a
mean temperature above 60°. 4th. That in all seasons of the year, with the
exception of the autumn, the extension of hooping cough is promoted by a
comparatively warm and dry atmosphere; in the autumn, a warmer and moist season
seems most favourable to it. Great atmospheric dryness, and little rainfall, appears
capable of counteracting, to some extent, the unfavourable operation of a mean
temperature above 60°. The peculiar conditions of weather, during 1868, then, were
just those which were likely to be promotive of an extension of hooping cough
among our population. One hundred and fifty-eight deaths are recorded in the
Mortuary Table, and 668 cases in the public practice of the parish.
Erysipelas prevailed unusually during the months of September, October, and
December. It abated during the cold weather of Novomber, to revive as soon as
the temperature rose above the average in December. Ninety-three out of the 197
cases on our Sickness Table happened in these four months. The number of deaths
registered, during the year, was 32.
Sore Throat, or a disease thus designated, gives the high number of 950 cases
to our Sickness Table. In 1867, only 543 cases were recorded. It had been very
prevalent all the year; but in September, when scarlet fever was abating, the
monthly number of cases rose suddenly from 69 to 135. Ninety cases were recorded
in October, 110 in November, and 159 in December. I am not prepared to say to
what form of disease these cases were allied, but it is remarkable that the increase
of cases coincided, in point of time, with the extension of erysipelas.
THE EPIDEMIC OF SMALL-POX, 1862-68.
At the close of July, last year, or the beginning of August, came to an end an
epidemic of small-pox with which we had been plagued, with little remission,
for nearly six years. It commenced in the middle of November, 1862—the disease
spreading extensively in the month of December. It was preceded by a very
heavy epidemic of measles, the principal violence of which was expended upon
the months of June and July. This subsided through August and September;
but an autumnal epidemic occurred concurrently with the small-pox outbreak
in November and December. Both diseases subsided during the early months
of 1863. In the spring of 1863, the severest burst of small-pox occurred, 239
cases having been recorded in the public practice of the parish during the
months of May and June alone. In the summer of this year the cases became
fewer; they wero still less numerous in the autumn, and the disease was very