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III. 



SIXTEEN YEAKS' OBSERVATION'S OlST THE RELATION 

 BETWEEN TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL AND THE 

 SPREAD OF SCARLATINA, MEASLES, AND TYPHOID 

 FEVER. 



Br R. SYDNEY MARSDEN, 



D.Sc, M.B., CM., D.P.H., F.R.S. Edinb., M.R.LA., &c., 

 Medical Officer of Health for Birkenhead. 



Read April 23. Ordered for publication April 25. Published May 12, 1906. 



In endeavouring to trace any connexion between meteorological 

 conditions and the spread of any disease, it is obvious that there are 

 only two circumstances likely to have any effect — first, temperature, 

 and secondly, rainfall or humidity ; and with regard to the first, since 

 the temperature curve will always have a maximum in the summer 

 and a minimum in the winter, it seems more important to consider 

 the variations of temperature from the normal condition than the 

 absolute temperature itself. 



Exceptional circumstances cannot be explained by ordinary 

 phenomena, and the weekly variations of both temperature and rain- 

 fall have therefore been tabulated (from observations taken at the 

 Observatory, Bidston Hill, Birkenhead, in the County of Cheshire), 

 together with the number of cases of scarlatina, measles, and typhoid 

 fever notified to me during the same periods, as Medical Officer of 

 Health for the District. 



These weekly variations have been set down in tables for the 

 sixteen years 1890 to 1905, inclusive; and thus we have actual data 

 side by side for forming an opinion on this doubtful though important 

 point, as to whether there is any relation between meteorological 

 conditions and the spread of these diseases in epidemic form. 



The relation between rainfall and ground-water and diphtheria 

 has been carefully studied by several observers; and Dr. Arthur 



