View report page

10
January, 1881. This remarkable difference is easily explained.
The atmospherical conditions at the end of 1879, as well as at the
beginning of 1880—cold, damp, and fog—were unfavourable, and
produced their customary effects on the public health, indicated
by a rise in the rate of mortality due mainly to the fatal prevalence
of chest diseases amongst the aged. The concluding weeks of 1880,
on the other hand, were characterised by mild and genial weather,
whilst the low temperature that prevailed in January, 1881 was
unaccompanied by fogs or unusual damp; hence the comparatively
slight prevalence of chest diseases, the moderate number of deaths
of aged persons, and the low death-rate. The recorded facts well
illustrate what I have often before mentioned, viz., that so called
"seasonable" weather—cold in winter, and heat in summer—is
not favourable to the classes of the population whose deaths go to
swell the death-rate, to wit, the aged and the very young. In
inclement winters the former succumb in large numbers to chest
diseases, whilst in hot and dry summers, large numbers of infants
perish by diarrhoea. The temperature in the following month,
ending February 26th was slightly (1°.2), below the average, but
the death-rate was favourable, being again 2.5 per 1,000 below the
decennial average, and the deaths of aged persons, and of persons
at all ages from chest diseases, were below average. In the months
ending April 23rd and May 21st, the same favourable conditions
prevailed, and but for the epidemic of small-pox, and a somewhat
fatal prevalence of measles—the deaths from this disease in the 8
weeks were 22—the state of the public health, as gauged by the
rate of mortality, was very favourable, the rate being 3.2 and 1.9 per
1,000 below the average. In the four weeks ended June 18th, for the
first and only time during the year, the death-rate (18.8) was above
the average, viz., to the extent of 2.1 per 1,000: there were 33
deaths registered at the Parish Infirmary during the month, and
the deaths by violence (14) were unusually numerous; they included
six of persons suffocated in a house wilfully set on fire by the
occupier, for the sake of insurance money, which however he did
not get, being subsequently condemned to die as a murderer,
though afterwards the sentence was commuted to penal servitude
for life. In the two succeeding months, ending July 16th and
August 13th, the death-rate fell to 14.4 and 16.9 per 1,000, being
2.8 and 1.7 per 1,000 below the average, notwithstanding a