MR. A. W. PUBSTON ON TUB GREAT FROST OF 1890 — 1)1. 11)5 
North Denes, at Yarmouth, at a spot where some refuse had 
been shot.” 
As to the effect of the severe cold upon the public health, one 
of the most remarkable facts was that in London the death-rate of 
children under one year of age decreased in an extraordinary 
manner. The cause of this is assigned to the fact that in ordinary 
winters young children are taken out and catch cold, whereas 
during the recent frost they were kept indoors and protected from 
the cold. This, however, does not appear to have been the case in 
Norwich, Mr. Charles Williams having informed me that the 
number of deaths of infants under one year during the ten weeks 
ending 24th January, 181)1, was 96, as against 86 during the ten 
weeks ending 25th January, 1890, during an exceptionally mild 
winter. Mr. Williams has also been good enough to give mo the 
following further details as to the death-rate, &c., in Norwich 
during the period of the recent frost. The death-rate during the 
ten weeks was 21, 17, 23, 23, 26, 27, 27, 28, 28, and 21 (or an 
average of 24.1 per thousand per week), as against 17, 1 1, 23, 27, 
24, 11, 19, 19, 20, and 15 (or an average of 17.6 per week) 
during the corresponding period of the previous winter. The 
deaths of persons sixty years of age and upwards was 167, as 
against 116 in the previous winter. Deaths from the following 
diseases also occurred during the period of the frost — Diphtheria 1 1, 
Measles 9, Whooping-cough 19, Fever 4, Diarrhoea 3, Scarlet 
Fever 1. 
The skaters had an unusually long period of enjoyment. In 
llegent’s Park skating continued uninterruptedly for forty-three 
days, where the ice attained a thickness of over nine inches. 
Many large rivers were frozen over in all parts of England, and in 
Norfolk the broads were covered with a thickness of ice not ever 
before remembered. Towards the close of the frost some measure- 
ments were taken at Wroxham Broad, with a result which proved 
that the thickness of the ice was from twenty-one to twenty-two 
inches. 
