'A'60 METEOKOLOGICAL REPOET, 1868, 



Thundekstoems occun*ed at Alston on the 20th ; at North 

 Sunderland on the 7th ; at North Shields on the 20th and 26th ; 

 at "Whitley on the 30th; at Acklara Hail, near Middlesbro', on 

 the 11th, 20th, and 29th. 



The mortality in the quarter ending with September 30th was, 

 unlike that of the two previous quarters of the year, considerably 

 above the average. The annual rate for country parishes for the 

 summer quarter (July, August, and September) is seventeen ; 

 that of the chief town districts is twenty- two to the one thousand 

 living. In 1868 these numbers rose to twenty and twenty-six 

 respectively. 



It will be noted how much in excess of these numbers was the 

 rate of mortality in the chief towns of the North. 



That the peculiar state of the weather, the causes of which it 

 is the high province of the meteorologist to trace out, was the 

 cause of some of this great increase is not open to dispute. 



But after making every allowance on that score, there cannot 

 be the smallest doubt but that a very large number of persons 

 perished from disease induced by causes strictly within the con- 

 trol of the public authorities, but which too often they lack the 

 power to remove. 



Diarrhaaa was very prevalent throughout the kingdom. Our 

 own locality suffered severely from it. One hundred and twenty- 

 tv/o deaths from that cause were recorded in Newcastle, and 

 sixty-nine in Sunderland. Scarlatina was also very prevalent. 

 Taking the population at the numbers already given, the death- 

 rate for the quarter per thousand living will be for Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, 27-44; Sunderland, 27-10; South Shields, 31-30; 

 Gateshead, 31-07; Tynemouth, 25-97. 



October. — 



" A good October and a good blast, 

 To blow the hog acorn and mask." 



— Old Proverb. 



Grreenwich. — A change came o'er the scene with the beginning 

 of October, and we can no longer speak, as in all the previous 



