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10
prevalence of the diseases of the respiratory organs. The deaths
of persons aged 60 and upwards in the month of February were
95, and the deaths from chest diseases were 101, including 70
from bronchitis.
The Metropolitan death-rate for the first week of February was
48.1 per 1000, a higher rate than had been recorded since the
cholera epidemics of 1849, 1854, and 1856; and in this week the
deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs, numbering 1,557,
exceeded the corrected weekly average by upwards of 1,100. The
Metropolitan death-rate for the month (34) was 9 per 1000 in excess
of the decennial average, and 7 per 1000 higher than the rate in
January. The Kensington death-rate exhibited an increase of 3.4
per 1000 only, on the decennial average, and 1.4 per 1000 on the
January rate.
The mean temperature in March was 3°.l above the average,
and the deaths of aged people, and of people at all ages from chest
diseases, were about as many below the average as they had been
above the average in January and February; thirty-eight deaths only
having been caused by these diseases, and only 39 persons having
died at 60 and upwards. The death-rate in the parish and the
Metropolis respectively was 3.l and 3.5 per 1000 below the decennial
average, and 7'3 and 12.6 per 1000 below the rate in February.
This remarkable decline in the death-rate was due in part to the
clear bright weather that had set in; but it was due in part also to
the fact that the deaths of aged people, and of persons at all ages
from chest diseases, had previously been excessive—many
persons who would have succumbed to these diseases week by
week as the winter progressed, in ordinary circumstances, having
been cut off prematurely owing to the unusual inclemency of the
weather in January, the untoward combination of severe cold and
dense fogs.
In the following four weeks ended April 24th, cold winds having
been prevalent, and notwithstanding the temperature had been 1°.3
above the average, there was an increase of 19 in the deaths of aged
persons above 60, and of 12 from chest diseases.
In the next period of four weeks ended May 22nd, the death-rate
fell to 15, or 3.5 per 1000 below the decennial rate. In the
following four weeks to June 23rd, the death-rate was 0.5 below
the average; the mean temperature, 55°.7, corresponding with