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were below the average, and those from diarrhoea considerably
less than half the average, corrected for increase of population.
It may be mentioned, that more than a moiety of the deaths from
diarrhoea occurred between the 29th and 40th weeks (July 16th
to October 7th), the incidence of this disease having been
delayed as a result of the unseasonable coolness of the
summer. Whooping cough was most fatally prevalent in the
first half of the year. On the decline of whooping cough, measles
for a few months took the leading place among zymotic diseases.
Scarlet fever and enteric fever were most fatal towards the end
of the year, about one half of the deaths from these causes
having been registered in the last quarter.
The death-rate in Kensington during the first four weeks of the
year (19.9 per 1,000) approximated somewhat closely to the decennial
average (20.9), owing to the fatal prevalence of whooping
cough (31 deaths), and for the first time in several months the
deaths from the principal diseases of the zymotic class were considerably
above the average.
In the second period of four weeks, January 29 to February
25, the death-rate (21.9), highest in 1882, was 1.0 per 1,000
above the average, the rate in the Metropolis as a whole
(29.4) being 4.0 per 1,000 above the average, and 7.5 above the
Kensington rate. The highest death-rate in the Metropolis in
1882 (35.3 per 1,000) was reached in the week ended February
11th, when London stood at the bottom of the RegistrarGeneral's
list, which shows the annual rate of mortality in the
28 largest English towns. This unusual rate was due to the
prevalence of fogs of unusual density, offensiveness, and duration,
which were the cause of an excessive fatality from diseases
of the respiratory organs. In the four weeks the deaths in
the whole Metropolis from this class of diseases exceeded
the corrected weekly average by 43, 430, 237 and 46 respectively.
In the parish there were 91 deaths from bronchitis
and pneumonia, as against 61 in the previous four weeks.
Happily the fogs were not associated with any intensity of cold
(the temperature, 41°.1, was 1°.6 above the decennial average),