170 



REPORT — 1855. 



There are three diseases in this list which scarcely admit of being considered 

 separately, inasmuch as the mortality set down to two out of three of them is evi- 

 dently swollen by cases really due to the remaining one. These diseases are diar- 

 rhceaj dysentery, and cholera — diseases to which the events of the last few years 

 have lent an unusual interest. The subjoined table shows the number of cases 

 entered each year under these three heads, together with the aggregate numbers, 

 and the fluctuations to which they are subject singularly and collectively. The table 

 is divided into two parts, consisting each of seven years (with an intermediate year, 

 1847). In the first septennial period we had no visitation of epidemic cholera, 

 while in the second period we suffered from two such visitations ; so that by com- 

 paring the two periods we shall know what excess of mortality is due, in the second 

 period of seven years, to two visitations of Asiatic cholera. 



It will be seen that the total mortality in a million of persons living in the metro- 

 polis from English cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery, in the first seven years (1840 

 to 1846 inclusive,) in which there was no visitation of Asiatic cholera, was 3865, 

 or an average of 552 per annum ; while in the last seven years (1848 to 1854 inclu- 

 sive) the total mortality was 19,253, or an average of 2750. The excess of mor- 

 tality, which may be presumed to have been due to Asiatic cholera in the last seven 

 years, was therefore 19,253 —3865, or 15,388 ; and the annual excess 2750 —552, 

 or 2198. This excess must be understood to consist of the additional deaths from 

 the three diseases, cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery, and not of the addition made 

 by the visitations of Asiatic cholera to the mortality' from all causes. 



The deaths from cholera, diarrhcEa, and dysentery combined, in the first seven 

 years, will be found to have reached their maximum in the year 1846, the hottest 

 year of the fourteen, and with one exception (1841) the year of the greatest rain- 

 fall. This was also the second year of the potato failure, and food was dear. 



The paper then goes on to show that an intimate relation exists between a high 

 mortality from these diseases and a high temperature, and that no other atmospheric 

 condition which can be expressed in figures bears any similar relation to the mortality 

 from these causes. 



If we assume the yearly average of 552 deaths from cholera, diarrhoea, and dysen- 

 tery, during the seven years from 1840 to 1846 inclusive, to be the true average from 

 these three analogous diseases, and consider them as one disease, we shall be in a 

 condition to point out the order of importance of the several maladies comprised in 

 this group of zymotic diseases. The disease which commits the greatest ravages 

 among the population of the metropolis is typhus fever. The deaths set down to 

 this cause amount to 951 in the million of inhabitants. Scarlatina comes next in 

 order, as the cause of 899 deaths. Hooping-cough occupies the third place, and 

 gives rise to 857 deaths. Measles proves fatal to 575 persons ; cholera, diarrhoea, 

 and dysentery collectively, to 552 persons; small-pox, to 399; croup, to 167; 

 erysipelas, to 164 ; influenza, to 110 ; thrush, to 103 ; syphilis, to 43 ; quinsey, to 



