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of the same month, it was successively 39.0°, 35.5°, and 37.4°. On Wednesday,
the 24th November, the thermometer was 20.5°, or 11,5° below the freezing point. In
the week following this very severe weather, the mortality was 65.
It is during the colder months of the year, that the diseases of the respiratory
organs prove so fatal, particularly to the aged and to the young. The powers ef life
in old persons, and in young children, are unable to withstand the depressing effects of
cold, unless the individuals are provided with adequate clothing, sufficient food, and
fuel to supply artificial heat. These necessaries cannot be procured by the very poor,
either for themselves or for their children, and both suffer in their health from the
want of them; while the rich, on the other hand, although able abundantly to provide
for the comfort of their offspring, yet, from the tyranny of fashion, from their confirmed
habits and customs, and from their imperfect knowledge of physiology, allow
their children to be exposed to the chilling atmosphere, without protecting them bv
proper clothing. The " hardening process," which is founded in ignorance, is the cause
of much suffering, and of many untimely deaths.
The total deaths which occurred during the year, from diseases of the resDiratory
organs, were 484; of which, 333 (or more than two-thirds,) took place during
the six colder months. The deaths from zymotic diseases were 572, or 23.3 per cent,
of the total mortality. During the previous year, the mortality from zymotic diseases
was 22.4 per cent, of the total number of deaths. Fever, however, has proved somewhat
less fatal during the last year, the number being 104, whereas, for the previous
year, it was 117. Scarlet fever, on the other hand, was far more fatal, 87 against
43. Diarrhoea shows a decrease of 31, while the deaths from measles increased from
60 to 78, and hooping cough from 89 to 117. During the last two years, there have
been only 7 deaths from small pox, viz: 4 in the year 1857, and 3 in 1858. The relative
mortality of males and females, caused by epidemic diseases, during the last two
years, has been as follows:—Of 137 deaths from measles, there were 71 males, and
66 females. Of 130 deaths from scarlet fever, 72 were males, and 58 were females.
Of 205 deaths from hooping cough, there were 91 males, and 114 females. Of 248
deaths from diarrhoea, there were 125 males and 123 females. Of 220 deaths from
fever, there were 114 males, and 106 females. Diphtheria proved fatal to 9
children, 7 males, and 2 females, during the year ending 1st January, 1859. From
the resemblance which this disease bears to scarlet fever, it is frequently mistaken for
it. The Registrar General has recorded the deaths from diphtheria under the head of
scarlet fever.
There were 55 deaths uncertified by any medical practitioner during the year;
15 of which are recorded in the returns of the last three months. The inquests have
been rather less numerous; 216 having been held in 1858, while 227 were held in
1857.
The deaths of children, under 5 years of age, were 1154, or nearly one-half
of the total number of deaths. During the year, 112 died of old age, of whom 56
were above 80 years of age. This is a very small number, when we consider that old