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5
TABLE II.

Table I, shows that the disease was exceedingly fatal in
1838, 1844, 1848, 1863, 1871 and 1877, having produced a
death rate in each year, in excess of 700 out of each 1,000,000
inhabitants; that it was epidemic but not so fatal in 1840,
1841, 1845, 1851, 1852, 1855, 1859, 1860, 1866, 1867, 1872,
and 1878. There have therefore been 6 periods of excessive
mortality from this disease during the 41 years, 1838-78, the
two highest being 1838 and 1871, which were separated by a
period of 32 years. The years having the smallest death
rates were 1850, 1857, 1858, 1861, 1869, and especially 1873,
1874 and 1875, when the mortality was the lowest recorded
in any year of this period, and probably the smallest that
has ever occurred in London. The reason for these small
death rates is evident, viz., that the frightful epidemic of 1871
left comparatively few persons amongst the population who
were susceptible to the disease. If we look upon the 34
years 1839—1872, as a greater epidemic wave, and the other
epidemics as smaller waves, we get 398 deaths per million
population in London, as the mean annual mortality from
small pox. This mean when reduced to the more familiar
proportion of per 1,000, gives only .398, or not quite one
death amongst 2,500 persons. The mean mortality for the
ten years 1871-80, was only .460 per 1,000, and therefore not
very much above the average, although the immense
mortality in 1871 is included amongst the deaths for this
period. The table shows that between 1848 and 1871, the
mortality from small pox was below the average of the whole