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the last ten years. Tho deaths referred to diarrhcca in the metropolis,
which in the three previous weeks had been 77, 107, and 179, further rose
to 204 last week, of which 158, or 77 per cent., were of infants under one
year of age, and 34 of childron aged between one and 5 years."
" The annual death-rato from diarrhoea in London, for the week
ending 17th July, averaged 3.1 per 1000, and ranged from 1.9 in the
west, to 4.6 in the east groups of districts." Again, for the week
ending September 25th, when the mean temperature was 60.1°, the deaths
from diarrhoea were 125, while for tho previous week, when the mean temperature
of the air was 63.2°, or 3.1 in excess, the deaths from diarrhoea
were 147. On the other hand, for the weeks ending August 14th, August
21st, August 28th, when the mean temperature was respectively 65.2°,
66.6°, and 62.2°, the deaths from diarrhoea were 147, 181, and 215,
which was tho highest number in any week during the quarter, when
the mean temperature had fallen 4.4° from that of the previous week.
It is, however, generally admitted by scientific inquirers into the causes
of summer diarrhoea, that neither temperature alone, nor the eating of
unripe fruit, nor both combined, are sufficient to account for the increased
number of deaths from diarrhoea which usually occur in the summer
months. The cause still requires to be investigated.
" Evidence," says the Registrar-General, " appears strongly to point to the
intimate relation between the sanitary condition and the death-rate from
diarrhoea. If temperature only were the cause of summer diarrhoea, it
would be difficult to account for the difference in the rate of mortality of
the several towns in England; for instance, the diarrhoea-rate during
this quarter ranged from 1.6 and 2.5 in Bristol and London, to 7.0 and 9.2
in Birmingham and Leicester. Why should the diarrhoea rate be 3.8 in
Nottingham and 9.2 in Leicester ? And why 5.7 in Salford, when it was
only 2.6 in [Oldham ? " Fatal diarrhoea," the Registrar-General, in his last
quarterly report, remarks, " is essentially an infantile disease. In town
popnlations the deaths of infants from diarrhoea bear a large proportion to
the total deaths referred to this disease than they do in rural populations. In
London last quarter 74 per cent. of the 2128 deaths from diarrhoea were of
infants under one year of age, 19 per cent, of children aged between one and
live years, 2.7 per cent. of persons aged between 5 and 60 years, and 4.4 per
cent. of persons aged upwards of 60 years."
In the same report of the Registrar-General there is given a table of
mortality from diarrhoea, and meteorology, in London, in the summer months
of each of the 15 years 1861-75; and it appears from this table that
in some years, when the mean temperature of tho air is comparatively high,
the mortality from diarrhoea is less than when the temperature is comparatively
low. Thus, in the year 1861, the annual death-rate per 1000 from
diarrhoea was 2.66 when the mean temperature of the air was 60.4°; in
the year 1864 the deaths from diarrhoea were 2.80 per 1000, and the mean