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So that 662, or more than ¾ths of the deaths occurred in the 1st and 4th
quarters of the year; there is nothing very remarkable in this of itself,
were it not for the fact that no less than 236, or more than a quarter of the
deaths registered under this head during the whole year, occurred during
one single month, the month of December, which is, however, it must be
noted, one of the months in which we reckon five weeks; in these five
weeks 690 deaths were recorded, (460 was the greatest number ever registered
before during the corresponding five weeks), and the death-rate was
more than 33 per 1000 per annum; a third of this was due to diseases of
the class we are considering. Now what was the cause of this ? I have
already pointed it out in my Report for December. The first
fortnight of that month was very cold, the week ending December
9th having a mean temperature no less than 12° Fahrenheit lower than the
average temperature of the same week during fifty years, and this extreme
cold was succeeded by warm damp weather. Cold weather is especially
fatal to very young children and to old persons, and last December afforded
us a very remarkable exemplification of this fact.
MARRIAGES.
I am indebted to Mr. Hicks the Superintendent Registrar for the following
return of the number of marriages which took place in the parish
during the year;—
Quarter ending 31st March 341
„ 30th June 454
„ 30th September 477
„ 31st December 488
Total 1760
This is equivalent to a rate of over eight per thousand per annum,
which is about the same as the rate for England generally.