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18
when hurtful, are most marked in the crowded dwellings
of the poor. In a general way it may be said that
the largest proportional number of deaths occurs in
the winter quarter, when the inclemency of the
weather exerts its action against the aged and the infirm;
for on taking the averages of the last ten years, as
shown in the fifth table of the Appendix, it will be
seen that of every 1,000 deaths in the year throughout
the City, 280 occur in the winter season, and only
232 in the summer—the autumn proportion being
251, and the spring 237. This effect of winter cold
is most marked in the healthy districts of the City,
where the natural causes of death are not masked
by the unnatural; for in the unhealthy districts the
summer is the fatal season; and this was so remarkable
in the time of my predecessor, that he
referred to it as a test of defective sanitary conditions,
its higher temperature giving to the several local
causes of endemic disease an augmentation of activity
and virulence. It is gratifying, however, to observe
that this is abated to a large extent, and that it
indicates improvement in the sanitary condition of
the worst districts of the City. But even now there
is sufficient to show that the heat of summer is
peculiarly inimical to infant life; for of every 1,000
deaths of children during the year, 287 occur in the
summer quarter, and only 214 in the winter. At from
15 to 40 years of age the death-rate is not much affected
by the seasons, but after that age the mortality
becomes larger and larger in the winter quarter as age