The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-01 00:00:00

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.

The directors of this company have just issued their
report, which states that the amount of capital charge-
able on revenue for the half-year ending 31st of Decem-
ber last is 12,301,8561., including 277,6921. expended
during the half-year. The mortgage debt amounted to
2,798,5261., the average rate of interest being 41. 3s. 6d.
per cent. The total receipts for the half-year amounted
to 512,3991. against 482,7721. at the corresponding
period of 1853, and the expenses to 205,464/. against
206,0891. at the corresponding period of 1853. The
balance of revenue applicable to the payment of interest
and dividend and other fixed charges is 322,2471. It is
recommended that a dividend at the rate of 4 per cent.
per annum (less income tax) be declared on the ordinary
capital, leaving a surplus of 20,1301. for the next
account.

BEALTII OF LONDON DURING THE FROST.

(From the Report of the Registrar-General. )
The intense cold showed slight signs of mitigation un-
til the end of last week, and the deaths were 1,604. Zy-
motic diseases were fatal to 294 persons—namely, 31
who died of small-pox, 30 of measels (chiefly in the east
and south districts), 47 of scarlatina, and which, as well
as hooping-cough (82), prevails chiefly in the north dis-
tricts. Typhus was fatal in 36 cases, childbirth in 10,
consumption in 201 ; bronchitis, pneumonia, and asthma,
in 404 cases, which exceed the corrected average of cor-
responding weeks by 156.
The mean height of the barometer in the week was
29.779 in. The mean temperature of the air was 26.7
degs., which is 12.7 degs. below the average. The
highest point, 41.2 degs., was attained on Saturday ;
the lowest, 11.1 legs., on Monday morning, when the
moon was in the equator. In the sun a thermometer
rose to 53 degs. The dryness was 4.8 degs. ; the dew-
point was 21.9 degs. The wind was calm, and travelled
at the rate of 330 miles over Greenwich. Electricity
was positive and active ; snow fell on one day, and a
thaw set in on Saturday.

The season of extreF;ie cold has now, we may hope,
passed over, and its effects have been seen in the tables
of the last mix weeks, when the deaths of 9,408 persons
have been registered. These deaths exceed the average
by 1,968, which appear under various diseases, and were
the indirect results of the low temperature.
The temperature of the six weeks was 28.4 deg. on an
average, and the deaths were nearly 100 weekly to
every degree of depression below the freezing point of
water.

But the cold affected persons very differently, accord-
ing to their age, for in the five weeks that ended on
Feb. 17, at the first age of manhood (20 to 40), the cold
did not destroy 2 in 10,000 ; at the age of 60 to 80 it
was fatal to 38 in 10,000. At the soldier's age, with
the shelter that London affords, the mortality from cold
is inconsiderable.

If the average deaths at each of the five ages are. sub.
tracted from the deaths in the five weeks of cold weather
the numbers that are left representing the deaths by
cold are 367, children and youths under 20 ; 159 young
men and women of 20.40 ; 200 middle-aged persons of
40-GO ; 561 of 60-SO ; and 173 of SO and upwards.
Upon dividing these numbers by the persons living of
the corresponding ages, we find that the inottality by
cold in the 100,000 was at the rate of 35 tinier Vie
age of 20, and IS, 64,352, and 1,749 at, the four sub-
sequent ages. _ _ _

The temperature of the blood is about 93 deg., at
which it is sustained with some slight variations even
when the body is immersed in an atmosphere of 29 deg.,
or of a still lower temperature. • BLit the heat that is
lost by the lungs and the skin is so gnat that it is not
supplied with sufficient rapidity in the young and the
old ; who, t) use a common expression, do not " stand
the cold" so well as men in the prime of early manhood.
The above numbers show that the power of cold on life
varies according to definite laws ; thus the mortality
by cold is (35) twice as great under the age of 20
as the mortality (18) at 20.40 ; but after that turn-
ing point the power of resisting cold decreases every
year, and men of 90 and men of 30 have suffered from
the cold that we have experienced in the proportion of
100 to 1 (or of 1749 to 17'5).
And the general result is. that the danger after 30 of
dying of cold is doubled every nine years of age ; fur out
of the same numbers living to 1 death by cold at the
age of 30, there are 2 at 39, 4 at the age of 48, 8 at the
age of 57, 16 at the age of 66, 32 at the age of 75, and 64
at the age of 84. This series at least expresses very
nearly the relative mortality by cold at the respective
ages during five weeks among two-and-a-half millions of
people.
Exercise, ample supplies of food and clothing, and
artificial external warmth, mitigate the effects of cold
of London, and by sustaining the temperature of their
sleeping rooms, the danger of the aged is much
diminished.

Cold is less fatal than dirt in the air and water in
London, through which the cholera, dysentery, and other
matters that induce zymotic diseases are diffused ; that
while intense cold killed 1,604 persons in the five weeks
preceding the last, cholera destroyed 7,222 in five weeks
of last year ; and while cold killed 159 men and women
of the age 20.40, cholera killed 1,909 at the correspond-
ing age.
In all the religions of antiquity, before science had de-
monstrated the truth that dirt is the cause of innume-
rable diseases, men had been taught by their great law-
givers to regard personal uncleanliness as something de-
filing and unholy ; yet it is only recently that the arti-
sans, and even the middle class of London, have in
-parts been supplied with baths, and with the means of
-washing linen easily and at litt!e cost. The last return
of " the committee for promoting the establishment of
baths and washhonses for the labouring classes" shows
that there are thirteen baths and washhouses in Lon-
don ; at which 1,220,739 baths were administered for
17,0621,, and 421,101 washings of the linen of about
1,684,404 persons were performed for 6,0961.
Kensington, Chelsea, Hampstead, Islington, Hack-
ney, the Strand, Holborn, Clerkenwell, St. Lule, Shore-
ditch, Bethnal Green, St. George.in-the-East, Stepney,
St. Saviour, St. Olave, and St. George, Southwark,
Newington, Wandsworth, Camberwell, Rotherhithe,
and Lewisham are still without public baths and wash-
houses. The city of London, which spreads its hospi-
table tables to the rich, has hitherto left its poor citi-
zens unprovided with baths and washhouses.
Last week the births of 916 boys, and 874 girls, in
all 1,790 children, were registered in London. In the
ten corresponding weeks of the years 1845-54 the ave-
rage number was 1,509.

MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLIS.
NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES REGISTERED
IN THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEB. 24.
ZymoticDiseases 294
Diseases of Uncertain. Seat
Tubercular Diseases
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves and. Senses
Diseases of the Heart and Biood-vessels 55
Diseases of the Lungs and other Organs of
Respiration...
Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs

of Digestion
Diseases of the Kidneys, &c.
Childbirth, Diseases of the Uterus, &c.
Diseases of the Joints, Bores, and Muscles
Diseases of the Skin, &c.
Malformations
Premature Birth and Debility 34

55
89

Atrophy
Old Age
Sudden
Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance SQ