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It should be borne in mind that in 1873 and 1880 the general level of winter mortality
was higher than it is now ; it was about 450 per million inhabitants per week then
compared with about 300 per million inhabitants per week now. On the other hand
in both 1873 and 1880 the fogs and cold prevailed during the middle of a week and the
deaths which occurred simultaneously would have been registered partly in the week
of the fog and only partly in the subsequent week, whereas in December 1952 when
the fog prevailed at the week-end the concurrent deaths would almost all have been
registered in the subsequent week.
In conclusion it is perhaps worthwhile to reproduce from the Registrar-General's
weekly returns the numbers of deaths from all causes registered weekly from 15th
November to 27th December, 1952, in the eight towns in the South-Eastern Region
outside the London conurbation. These eight towns are Brighton, Canterbury, Eastbourne,
Gillingham, Hastings, Hove, Maidstone and Worthing. The weather conditions
experienced during this period by these towns were not greatly dissimilar from those
experienced by London. But these towns do not disgorge into the air so vast a volume of
smoke and noxious fumes as does the conurbation of London. The figures are as follows :

APPENDIX B
POLIOMYELITIS AND INOCULATIONS
A survey relating to the epidemic in 1949
(By B. Benjamin and A. T. Gore, of the statistical section)
during an epidemic of poliomyelitis in Melbourne, Australia, which began in
January, 1949, McCloskey (1) reported an apparent association between the site of
paralysis involved in poliomyelitis and the limb in which injections had been given in
the course of immunisation against diphtheria and whooping-cough. Consequently,
attention was directed to a number of cases in which paralysis followed closely upon
inoculation and in which the limb paralysed was that inoculated during the course of
the epidemic in this country in the summer of 1949. The coincidence was not in itself
proof of cause and effect since association in time could and should occur in accordance
with the same laws of chance which also determine that a certain number of people
are likely to pass over a railway bridge at the same instant as a train passes under it
without being suspected of designing the time-table. In addition to taking certain
control action, e.g., stopping the use of the antigen most often involved, the London
County Council made an immediate local investigation (as did also the Ministry of
Health on a national scale) of these cases of paralysis after inoculation. The immediate
object was to ascertain whether the frequency of occurrence of such double events
(i.e., inoculation and paralysis) was greater than could be accounted for by chance
coincidence. The results of this inquiry, which were made public (2), indicated that
there was a prima facie case for causal association in a proportion of the cases leaving a
proportion to be accounted for by chance.