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rate of over 30 per 1,000 births from Diarrhoeal diseases in children
under two years old. Last year the figures for the worst places
would have been considered extraordinary in the best towns at the
beginning of this century. It may be interesting to compare
our figures with those before and in the early years of the child
welfare movement.
In 1906 there were 96 deaths from Diarrhoeal diseases, 80
of them in infants under 12 months; in 1911 there were 98 deaths
of which 68 were in infants under 12 months; in 1921 there were
29 deaths of which 24 were in infants under 12 months old.

At that time summer Diarrhoea was considered to be due
to a micro-organism which resided in the superficial layers of the
earth. The micro-organism was supposed to have the power of
leaving the soil being carried in the air gaining access to the food
and of being introduced into the human body. The development
and multiplication of the micro-organism depended on a high temperature
not in the air itself but in the superficial layers of the soil.
Diarrhoea incidence was believed to mark time with the subsoil
temperature and epidemics of that disease were expected,
when the thermometer four feet below the surface registered 58
Fahrenheit. This year for weeks on end the sub-soil temperature
exceeded 60o Fahrenheit. The whole of the quarter was dry and
hot. The weather of July was notably dry and sunny, and over
England and Wales as a whole the rainfall was below the average.
The two warmest spells occurred during the first week and
between the 18th and 27th. Day temperatures of over 90"
Fahrenheit were recorded and in one place 94°F. was reached.