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doubt, a large proportion were really due to masked or unrecognized
influenza. Taking all cases in which Influenza
was named in certificates of the causes of death (119), the
deaths in the successive weeks were 5, 22, 52 and 40.
The death-rate in the first week of the year was equivalent to
29.6 per 1,000 per annum: it rose in the second week to 40.6,
and in the third week to 41.8, falling in the fourth week to
36.8 per 1,000. The rate for the four weeks combined, was
37.2, and 16.7 above the corrected decennial average. Nearly
one-sixth of the total deaths in 1892 occurred in these four
weeks: the number registered was 477, and 214 in excess of
the corrected average. The deaths in the Town sub-district
were 378, and the rate 414; the deaths in the Brompton subdistrict
being 99, and the rate 27.0.
The London death-rate in the four weeks was 40.0 per
1,000—15.5 above the decennial average—the rate in the successive
weeks 32.8, 40.0, 46.0 and 41.0 per 1,000. The deaths
primarily attributed to Influenza were 1,308, viz., 95, 271, 506,
and 436, in the four weeks consecutively. But the total deaths
in the four weeks, 13,066, were 5,050 in excess of the corrected
decennial average—an excess largely accounted for by the
mortality from the diseases of the respiratory organs, which
were the causes of 4,989 deaths, or 2,571 above the corrected
average. The deaths in excess from these diseases in the four
weeks consecutively, were 455, 594, 868, and 654. But the
deaths primarily attributed to Influenza (1,308), and the deaths
in excess from diseases of the respiratory organs (2,751),
together (4,059), were 991 fewer than the deaths (5,050) in excess
of the corrected average number; and having regard to
the comparatively satisfactory condition of the weather during
the month, which in ordinary circumstances would have been
favourable to the public health, there was but too much reason
for believing that a large proportion of those 991 deaths also,
was due directly or indirectly to the pestilence which was
creating such havoc in this and other countries.