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pox in London, it appears that the normal proportions
of about 12 in the week were maintained until
the first week of October, 1870, when the number
rose to 27 in the week. After that, with slight
variations, it slowly and steadily increased, so that
at the close of the year the number of deaths from
the disease was over a hundred in the week.
Throughout the months of January, February,
March, April, May, and June, the weekly number
was more than 200, and in the first week of May
(1871) it reached to 288. This is the largest weekly
mortality for the year; for, although the disease
continued to be very severe during the whole of
May, June, and July, yet it began to decline from
the first week of May. It is evident from this that
the chief force of the epidemic, as estimated by the
weekly returns of deaths from small-pox, was manifested
for a period of seven months—namely, from
the last week of the year 1870 to the end of the
following July, and that it reached its climax in the
first week of May. In the City of London, judging
from the returns of sickness among the poor, it
would seem that small-pox began to be somewhat
prevalent in the month of October, 1870, and that
in the two following months it was notably severe.
This severity has lasted, with more or less variation,
until the present time, although the period of its
greatest violence in the City was from November,
1870, to June of last year.