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135, Bethnal Green Road,
May 6th, 1861.
Gentlemen,
Following the course heretofore pursued, I
beg to lay before you the Vital Statistics and Sanitary Progress
of Bethnal Green during the year 1860. It will, at
the onset, gratify you to know, that notwithstanding the
extraordinary weather and the high price of provisions, our
Births rose and our Death-roll fell. In the first quarter the
mean temperature was but 38.9°, and the mortality was great.
The maximum of deaths for any one week of the year was
registered with us in this quarter on March 24th, and numbered
77. In the second quarter, the month of June was
wet and cold, and on the 24th the humidity attained 100, or
the point of saturation; so that "there was no difference
between the mean dew point temperature and air temperature."
During this quarter the mean temperature was 50.5°,
and in the week completed on April 21st, there died only 20
persons in Bethnal Green. This was the minimum of our
weekly returns. Throughout the Summer the fall of rain
was large, and the mean heat 56.8°, or "five degrees less
than the average of four corresponding quarters, 1856-9."
Fortunately the wet and cold "retarded putrefaction and
washed away" the poisons as they rose. In the last quarter
"the weather was generally cold, frequently wet or dull,
and before the year closed singularly severe." The mean
temperature was 42.8°. Table I. in the Appendix furnishes
month by month the readings of the Barometer and Thermometer,
the relative proportions of the wind, the fall of rain,
and the Deaths in London and Bethnal Green. In London