1868. | The Public Health. 279 
relation of temperature to the great death-rate of the second week in 
January, 1867, is very obvious. It not only occurred in London, 
but in all the other twelve populations. In London the death-rate 
went up from 27 in the 1,000 to 33, in Salford from 29 to 39, in 
Sheffield from 22 to 32,in Dublin from 25 to 31. Now during 
the first week in January the mean temperature at Greenwich was 
25°, and the lowest temperature was 6°. It was in the second week 
this wave of cold told upon the communities of the United King- 
dom, and although the temperature during the next three weeks 
was not so low, it was still low, and the populations all had high 
death-rates during the remainder of January. The first quarter of 
the year consequently presented a higher death-rate. The next 
highest death-rates we meet with are in the third quarter, and 
these manifestly arise from a high temperature. The mean tem- 
peratures of the first four weeks in August were above 60°, and 
we find during and after this increase of heat the death-rates 
increasing. Although sanitary arrangements can do nothing to 
prevent the fall and the rise of the thermometer, they can point out 
what ought to be done to mitigate the effects of cold and heat on 
the human body. Warm clothing and fires indoors are the great 
means of preventing the disastrous effects of cold in winter, whilst 
fresh air and pure water are needed to neutralize the effects of over- 
crowding and profuse perspiration in the summer. 
Of the 69,000 deaths m London, 15,000, or nearly a fifth of 
the whole, were due to zymotic diseases. This is probably about 
the proportion that these diseases would bear to the whole death 
of each of the large populations whose death-rate has been given. 
Zymotic diseases are especially regarded as preventible diseases. 
They all depend on a contagious poison conveyed from one body to 
another, and it is quite possible by proper means to prevent their 
spreading. Amongst these diseases we mention first small-pox, 
because its very existence amongst us is a disgrace. We know 
how to prevent it, yet from ignorance, carelessness, and grosser 
oversight, 1,332 people died of this disgusting disease in London 
alone. We have no means of ascertaining the extent to which this 
disease prevailed in other populations of England in 1867; but in 
the Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Registrar-General we find 
that in England and Wales alone there died of small-pox— 
1662 ). ea eek eye egs 
1863) 5... > eee 5964 
feet) 2, 4) eh ee GSe 
i865"... 4 TY Sree 
21,687 
These figures are truly alarming, and if the mere statement of 
facts in this way could produce any impression, it ought at once to 
