2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 17 Q6. 



that the excess of the mortality in Jan. 1795 above that of Jan. 1796, was not less 

 than of 1352 persons. A number sufficient surely to awaken the attention of the 

 most prejudiced admirers of a frosty winter. And though I have only stated the evi- 

 dence of 2 years, the same conclusion may universally be drawn; as I have learned 

 from a careful examination of the weekly bills of mortality for many years. These 

 2 seasons were chosen as being each of them very remarkable, and in immediate 

 succession one to the other, and in every body's recollection. 



It may not be impertinent to the objects of this Society, without entering too 

 much into the province of medicine, to consider a little more particularly the several 

 ways in which this effect may be supposed to be produced; and to point out some 

 of the principal injuries which people are liable to sustain in their health from 

 a severe frost. And one of the first things that must strike every mind engaged 

 in this investigation, is its effect on old people. It is curious to observe among 

 those who are said in the bills to die above 60 years of age, how regularly the tide 

 of mortality follows the influence of this prevailing cause: so that a person used 

 to such inquiries, may form no contemptible judgment of the severity of any of our 

 winter months, merely by attending to this circumstance. Thus their number last 

 Jan. was not much above ± of what it had been in the same month the year be- 

 fore. The article of asthma, as might be expected, is prodigiously increased, and 

 perhaps includes no inconsiderable part of the mortality of the aged. After these 

 come apoplexies and palsies, fevers, consumptions, and dropsies. Under the 2 

 last of which are contained a large proportion of the chronical diseases of this 

 country ; all which seem to be hurried on to a premature termination. The whole 

 will most readily be seen at one view in the following table. 



Notwithstanding the plague, the remittent fever, the dysentery, and the scurvy, 

 have so decreased, that their very name is almost unknown in London ; yet there 



