The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-27 00:00:00

_HEALTH OF L

(From the Registrar-General's Report)
The returns for the week that ended last Satur-
day show a further and rather formidable increase
of the deaths in London. The weekly number was
below a thousand in June, till near the end of the
month; it then rose above a thousand; in the-first
week of July it was 1226, in the following week-
th
e number was 1400, and last week it rose to
1605. The mean temperature of the air in June
was 61.4 deg.: in three weeks of July it has been i
69.1. deg. An increase in the heat of nearly 8 deg.
acting in connection with other circumstances that
are necessarily unfavourable to health, has been
attended by an increase of 600 in the deaths.
In the ten years 1849-58 the average number of
deaths in the week corresponding with last week
was 1064 ; but as the deaths included in the pre-
sent return occurred in a population which has in- ,
creased, they can only be compared with the
average raised in proportion to the increase, nair,r'i,"
with 1170. The result of the comparison f ''-n."' n'' '
usually unfavourable as regards the present time,
for the 1605 deaths of last week exceeded the number which the average rate of
would have produced. mortality
On referring to the causes of death y 4 35
is found under diarrhoea, the cleat- 'the increase
rose last week to 415, a Ir. As from which
much greater than that of any
limber which is
i years. The average number i-
week in previous
; Aof 1849-58 (corrected for corresponding weeks
.ncrease of population) is
108 ; the numbers previ,
usl ranged from 51 in the
year 1850 to 259 in lr ° Y
mark that the come
. d 57. It is important to re-
week in the east f' 21aint was far more fatal last
-, districts, particularly Shoreditch,
Bethnal-green •
olitan divisi'' Mile-end, than in the other metro-
P
rhea 153 r ons. Of the 415 deaths from
they con- Jecurred in the east districts, although
pope b'
.on of London. uprise little more than a fifth part of the
in Jr m
The disease was also fatal
0- ..entish Town, where no less than 16 deaths
ecurred from it. A- large majority of the fatal
cases, as was shown in former returns; are amongst
infants, 381 out of the whole number in the present
return having occurred to children who were not
two years old. Of the remaining 34, 10 occurred
to children more advanced, only 4 between the ages
10 and 60 years, and 20 at 60 years and upwards.
Besides the deaths from diarrhoea, 39 were returned
as caused by cholera, choleraic diarrhoea, &c., 9 of
which were the deaths of adults. Scarlatina was
fatal in 48 cases, diptheria in 8.
Four deaths were recorded in the previous week
as the result of the unusual heat ; last week eight of
a like description were returned thus :—A boy, aged
6 years, died on the 14th inst. in Islington, from
congestion of the brain and convulsions, from heat
of the sun (12 hours' illness) ; a girl, aged 9 years,
on the 13th, from convulsions and symptoms of
cholera, brought on by exposure to heat; a brick-
maker's labourer, aged 21 years, on the 16th, at
Rockhill, Sydenham, from sun-stroke, congestion of
the brain ; a sugar-baker, aged 32 years, on the
11th, in Whitechapel, from congestion of the brain
produced by heat and labour ; another sugar-baker,
aged 34 years, on the 18th, in the London Hospital,
suddenly from sun-stroke; a solicitor, aged 77 years,
on the 17th, natural decay, accelerated by the ex-
cessive heat of the weather; a man, aged 68 years
on the 20th, from natural decay, and debility from
the heat of the weather (10 days) ; and a weaver,
aged 46 years, at 36, New York-street, Bethnal-
green, on the 18th July, from coup de soleil from
working in a factory with a glass roof. With re-
ference to this last case the deputy coroner states
that the medical evidence was conclusive that the
sun's rays produced inflammation and congestion of
the brain, and coma.
Last week the births of 855 boys and 748 girls,
in all 1,603 children, were registered in London.
In the ten corresponding weeks of the years 1849-
58 the average number was 1,491.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.756 in.
The mean temperature was 69 deg., which is 7.4
deg. above the average of the same week in 43 years
(as determined by Mr. Glaisher). The mean daily
temperature was above the average on every day
except Saturday ; and on Sunday and Monday the
excess was about 12 deg. On Monday the thermo-
meter in the shade reached 93 deg., and in the sun
115.2 deg. On the same day the thermometer in
the shade fell to 56.7 deg., the lowest point in the
week. The entire range of temperature of that day,
and also of the week, was 36.3 deg.
,The mean
temperature of the water of the Thames was 73.9
deg., or nearly 4 deg. above that of the air. The
wind was generally in the south-west. Rain fell
to the amount of 2.15 in., more than half of it on
Thursday.