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20 ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF
when it is low. Thus, since 1887, the average temperature
of the air in the third, or summer quarter, has
been below the average, except in 1893 and 1895, when
it was respectively 2.3 and 2.7 degrees above the
average. In these years, the diarrhoea, as measured by
the mortality, was equal to an annual rate of 2 03 and
2.41 per 1,000 respectively, whereas during the six
colder summers, it averaged only T58 per 1,000. The
occurrence of diarrhoea does not depend, however, so
much upon the temperature of the air as upon the
temperature of the earth, otherwise we should have
experienced an outbreak in the warm weather of May,
1895. This statement is founded upon observations
which show that diarrhoea appears as soon as the earth
at a depth of 4 feet, reaches a temperature of 56 ° F.,
This is, of course, assisted or retarded by other conditions,
such as the amount of rain-fall. In London, as
a whole, the diarrhoea produces a maximum effect on
the death-rate in July, but in the Strand district this
effect is not attained till August.
Disinfection.
During the twelve months ending 31st December,
1896, 150 premises were purified and cleansed after
infectious disease, and 3606 articles were disinfected
in your Board's apparatus: 48 articles were burnt in
your destructor at the request of the owners.
In addition to disinfecting after cases of small-pox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, enteric fever and other
notifiable diseases, disinfection has also been effected on
the certificates of medical men that it was requisite
after cases of measles. Thorough cleansing of rooms,
and in some cases disinfection by steam has been
resorted to after all deaths from phthisis.