GaNie 
146.—Nores or Grounp TEMPERATURE DURING 1899. 
By H. F. Parsons, M.D., F.G.8. 
(Read February 20th, 1900.) 
Tur annexed table shows the means of daily readings of 
thermometers in the ground at depths of 1 ft. and of 4 ft. for 
periods of four weeks in 1899, as compared with the average of 
the three previous years 1896-8.. 
‘The general course of the rise and fall of temperature in the 
soil has been described by me in former papers read before the 
Club. ‘The special features of 1899, as compared with the 
' previous triennial average, were, first, the steady fall of the 
ground temperatures from January to March, due to the spell of 
cold weather in the latter part of February and March ; and, 
second, the high and sustained temperature of the ground in the 
latter part of the summer, due to the hot and dry weather which 
prevailed in July, August, and the earlier part of September. 
Of the 1 ft. thermometer the lowest reading was 30°2° on 
March 25th, against 86°9° in 1898, 834-2° in 1897, and 35:8° 
in 1896. (During the long frost of 1895 the thermometer was 
below 32° for about a fortnight; but being frozen into the tube, 
the lowest reading could not ‘be ascertained.) The highest 
temperature in 1899 was 71°7° on July 22nd, which is higher 
than any reading in the three previous years; the highest in 
1898 and 1897 having been 69°, and in 1896 71:1°. 
Of the 4 ft. deep thermometer the lowest reading in 1899 was 
417° on March 27th and 28th, against 420° in 1698, 39°7° in 
1897, and 42:0° in 1896, and 37:4° in 1895. The highest tem- 
perature in 1899 was 64° on August 5th-8th, against 62°3° in 
1898, 63°5° in 1897, and 62°6° in 1896. 
The 4 ft. thermometer stood at or above 56° from June 12th 
to October 8th=119 days, against 113 days in 1898 and 1897, 
and 128 days in 1896. 
The hot dry weather of the summer of 1899 was unfavourable 
to health, epidemic diarrhea having been more fatal than in 
any year since 1884, and enteric fever more fatal than in any 
year since 1893; while the infant mortality was the highest on 
record in any year since 1848. It would seem as if the effect 
of hot summers in the production of epidemic diarrheea were 
cumulative: 1899 is the fourth hot dry summer in succession, 
and the death-rate from diarrhea has steadily increased from 
55 per 100,000 persons living in 1896, to 98 in 1899. 
