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The deaths from fever, including 4 which occurred in the Fever
Hospital, have been 33. In the first quarter the deaths from fever were
10, in the second 8, in the third 4, and in the fourth 11.
The death rate from epidemic diseases, including those in Hospitals
for the year, in relation to the total mortality, is 11.7 per cent.
The annual rate of mortality in London during the four weeks of
December, 1878, was respectively as follows: for the week ended December
7th, it was equal to 23.7, 24.8, 29.1, and 27.7, while the rate for the
corresponding weeks in 1877 was equal to 22.8, 23.8, 26.0, and 25.9
respectively. The total deaths from all causes in London in December,
1878, were 7,747, and in December, 1877, they were 6,678. The increased
rate of mortality during the month of December, 1878, may reasonably
be accounted for by the greater coldness of the air during the last month
of this year, as compared with that in 1877; the mean of the lowest
readings in each week in December, 1878, was 32.6, 25.3, 26.4, and 24.9,
while in 1877, during the corresponding weeks of the same month, it was
38.3, 32.5, 38.1 and 32.1.
On the subject of low temperatures and its effects in increasing the
rate of mortality, it is stated in my report for the Quarter ended December,
1860, that the mean temperature of the air at Greenwich for the
week terminated on the 29th December, was 11 degrees below the average
of the same week during a period of 43 years, and that the excessive cold
weather which prevailed during the last two weeks of the year proved
particularly fatal to those predisposed to, or suffering from, disease of
the respiratory organs On Christmas-day, 1860, the thermometer stood at
8°, or 24 below the freezing point of water. At Scarborough on the Christmas-day
of the same year the lowest reading of the thermometer was 16°
below zero, or 48° below the freezing point of water. The returns of
the Registrar General show that the prolonged continuance of cold
weather is almost invariably followed by increased mortality.
The following interesting statement respecting the severe cold which
was experienced in some parts of this country in 1860, is taken from the
Horticultural Record, of February 5th, 1879:—
"The Christmas of 1860 is believed to have been the severest ever
experienced in Britain. At nine o'clock in the morning of Christmas-Day
in that year the thermometer at the Royal Humane Society's Receiving
House in Hyde Park, London, marked 15° Fahrenheit, or 17° below the
freezing point; but this was a mild temperature compared with what was