upon the Health of the Inhabitants of London. 283 
in this country has, within the last fifty years, increased from 
14,000 to above 100,000 pounds annually. And the same 
cause has probably contributed, from a mistaken mode of rea- 
soning, to prepossess people with the idea of the wholesome- 
ness of a hard frost. But it has in another place* been very 
ably demonstrated that a long frost is eventually productive 
of the worst putrid fevers that are at this time known in Lon- 
don ; and that heat does in fact prove a real preventive against 
that disease. And although this may be said to be a very re- 
mote effect of the cold, it is not therefore the less real in its 
influence upon the mortality of London. Accordingly a com- 
parison of the numbers in the foregoing table will shew that 
very nearly twice as many persons died of fevers in January 
1795, as did in the corresponding month of this year. I might 
go on to observe that the true scurvy was last year generated 
in the metropolis from the same causes extended to an unusual 
length. But these are by no means the only ways, nor indeed 
do they seem to be the principal ways, in which a frost ope- 
rates to the destruction of great numbers of people. The 
poor, as they are worse protected from the weather, so are 
they of course the greatest sufferers by its inclemency. But 
every physician in London, and every apothecary, can add 
his testimony, that their business among all ranks of people 
never fails to increase, and to decrease, with the frost. For 
if there be any whose lungs are tender, any whose constitu- 
tion has been impaired either by age, or by intemperance, or 
by disease ; he will be very liable to have all his complaints 
increased, and all his infirmities aggravated by such a season. 
Nor must the young and active think themselves quite secure, 
* Observations on the Jail Fever, by Dr. Hunter, Med. Trans. Vol. Ill, 
