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"the end justifies the means," viz., the improvement
of the public health, I make no further
apology for repeating with modifications and some
additions what I have previously written on this
subject.
I have mentioned above that the extremely hot
weather in August and September had possibly to
do with the large and comparatively sudden increase
of fatal cases of diarrhoea, and also that it is well
known, and the fact, that it is in the third quarter of
the year that diarrhoea as a rule is most prevalent.
A hot and a dry summer, such as that of last year,
is associated much more with a diarrhoea mortality
than a summer which, though hot, has no long
periods without rain; but how far the influence of
the rainfall is direct, that is, by washing the atmosphere
and preventing the dissemination of dust, and
by cleansing and removing dirt from the areas around
houses, especially of the working classes; and how
far indirect by preventing the rise of the earth's
temperature at a depth of three or four feet, it is
impossible to decide. It is, however, an established
fact that "the maximum mortality of diarrhoea by
no means necessarily coincides with the highest
readings of the air thermometer, but the temperature
of the soil is the essential point, and it is found that
the summer rise of diarrhoeal mortality does not
commence until the mean temperature recorded by
the 4-foot earth thermometer has attained somewhere
about 56 degrees Fahr." Eainfall is operative mainly
by its effect upon the temperature of the soil.
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