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FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT.
To the Vestry of the Parish of Paddington.
Gentlemen,
The rate of mortality in the Parish of Paddington,
in London, and generally throughout England and
Wales, during the year 1878, has been higher than that
which obtained during the previous year, the latter
having been an exceptionally healthy one. Too much
importance, however, ought not to be attached to
fluctuations in the death-rate from year to year. A hot
summer, which gradually raises the temperature of
rivers, some of which have been correctly designated
open sewers, to 65° Fahr., or thereabouts, is sure to
occasion numerous deaths from diarrhoea, and probably
hastens the fatal termination of other exhaustive
diseases, such as phthisis, cancer, &c. A prolonged
winter, with its increment of fogs, and damp, and
great variations of temperature, favours the occurrence
of diseases of the respiratory organs, and necessarily
augments the number of deaths from those diseases,