Deck. — Influence of Temperature on Infant Mortality. xxxix 



I have not made any distinction in this diagram between the different 

 kinds of intestinal disorders to which children are susceptible. The manner 

 in which the deaths were registered seemed not to be sufficiently accurate to 

 enable me to do so with any degree of satisfaction. Until some uniform 

 system of nomenclature of disease is adopted by medical men this will be the 

 case. On this accgunt I have preferred to group them all together, but if I 

 could have made a distinction between them we should probably have found 

 that dysenteric diarrhoea was especially prevalent towards the end of the 

 summer, during the prevalence of hot days and cold nights, and that it was 

 that form of intestinal disorder termed cholera infantum which was developed 

 during very hot weather, and was the chief cause of fatality at that time. 



These conclusions, which I think may be fairly deduced from the examina- 

 tion which I have made into the causes of the infant mortality during the 

 past two years in the Dunedin district, are more clearly demonstrated by 

 diagrams, showing in an accurate manner, day by day, the connection between 

 high temperature and infant mortality, which have been compiled by Dr. 

 Pemberton Dudley, of Philadelphia. These diagrams show for the summers 

 of the years 1869 and 1870, both the daily maximum temperature from the 

 15th June to the end of August, and the daily death-rate among infants 

 under two years of age from cholera infantum in the city of Philadelphia, and 

 from them Dr. Dudley arrives at the following conclusions : — 



1. That there are marked and sudden fluctuations in the number of deaths 

 from cholera infantum from day to day. 



2. That these fluctuations correspond very frequently with fluctuations of 

 temperature, the increase of mortality occurring either on the same day as the 

 increase of temperature, or on the day following. 



3. That these fluctuations are more marked about the time that the 

 epidemic is at its height, than at any other period before or afterwards. 



4. That there is a gradual rise in the daily mortality from the beginning 

 of the epidemic, and a gradual falling off towards its close, which are not 

 attended with a gradual increase and diminution of temperature. 



He adds, " The correspondence between the increase of mortality and the 

 rise of temperature does not entirely disappear at any time during the con- 

 tinuance of the epidemic. It will be perceived, however, that slight changes 

 of temperature are not always attended by any noteworthy increase in the 

 death-rate, and there are times when the temperature on a given day rises to 

 a very high point without being attended by any marked increase in the 

 mortality ; but it will be also observed that such days have been preceded by 

 a period of comparatively cool weather. This fact, taken in connection with 

 what was advanced in the fourth conclusion, appears to indicate that a cei'tain 

 amount of hot weather is necessary to create a predisposition to the disease, 



