The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-14 00:00:00

that Providence may send; but stone is sent;
reQPe drag themselves along at a snail's pace,
under the porticoes, the coolest spot, and will go
miles out of the way to -avoid a sunny crossing of
twenty yards' length. Step from shade to sunlight,
and the fiery glare swallows you up, wraps you in;
you feel as if you had plunged into a caldron, and
your eyes are blinded, every pore in your skin
tingles, all your poor brain is in a blaze. Linger
on the Place d'Armes till 8 or 9 o'clock in the even-
ing ; over all that vast level place, from all that
lofty mountain circle, there is not as much wind as
a bird would raise by flapping its 'wings. Go back
to-morrow to the same spot, at five, at four, any
time before sunrise, and earth and sky are still
equally unmoved, equally immovable. The granite
bench you sit upon preserves still the latent glow
from yesterday's sun, the huge blocks of house& in
your rear still radiate yesterday's heat. And to-
day's heat will add to yesterday's and the day's be-
fore ; layer upon layer, the heavy air will si (TiF,
upon us, till, as the Italians say, the heat will burst
(crepa it caldo), and the seasons, which seem to be
at a standstill, will go their round again.
Meanwhile how do people live under these trying
atmospheric circumstances ? Why, to bear the heat
is business enough for most men. They drag them-
selves, I said, at their own snail's pace, under the
porticoes ; 101 l upon stools before the cafe shop-
door, they call for mote ice and iced water, and talk
of the blessings of out-of-town existence. Out of
town all is not paradise, either ; there are musty,
fusty railway carriages, slow diligences, roads with
the dust fathoms deep, an aggravation of misery in
all endless varieties. The luckiest mortals run up
to the hills and lakes, to the hydropathic establish-
ments at Pesio, Grope, the baths of Valdieri, the
rugged homes of Viu, the sea watering places at
Sestri or Spezia. But the very sea, that tideless
inland sea, has no coolness, and the valleys are
hotter than the plain. Summer will reach up to
the very Alpine summit, though it be but for a
short spell, and then our fugitives must go further
back from the Italian to the Swiss Alps, often from
an oven to a furnace, from the frying-pan into the
fire. I crossed Mont Cenis a few days ago, and we
had no relief by night. I drove from Como, over
Varese, to Laveno, across the leafy, humid, luxu-
riant region; from lake to lake. I was up at day-
break, sat out till late at night, but the air never
cooled. It is God's pleasure that the Italians should
swelter in heat for a time, and I have no doubt it is
intended for their good.
• So far as my experience goes; I think excessive
heat greatly beneficial to the human frame. It
must be fought, I believe, by the same weapons by
which cold is overcome—by strong, manly exertion.
If I give in to it, like most of my neighbours, I am
soon languid, listless, and so utterly prostrate as
hardly to have strength to lift the cooling ice to my
lips ; but if I drink no ice, eschew water, take my
meals regularly without consulting appetite, then
move about at my usual brisk pace, take the sunny
or the shady side of the street indifferently—if I
determine not only not to mind but to despise
the heat and defy it, a new life seems to rise
within me. Nor am Iby any means an excep-
tion, or only in so far that my battling with the
summer is matter of choice with me ; but I see
men splitting stones along the sunny highway,
I see carters walking stoutly beside their teams,
I see troops, both foot and horse, marching across
the Piazza d'Armi at their wonted pace. They
seem, all of them, as strong and merry as in De-
cember, only a little more flushed; and one may
wager they are all healthier for being somewhat
leaner and lighter. The Bersaglieri were at drill
yesterday in their usual ground fully an hour before
sunset. The whole plain between the trees that
bound the Piazza d'Armi and the Alps was one
great fiery cload of dust raised by their thun-
dering feet. There is not one blade o' grass on
the Piazza d'Armi but is burnt up to tinder; but
the fields beyond are under water at their owner's
pleasure, and the dust seems only to enrich their
soil and intensify their green. Between this and
the Alps the drought can do little or no mischief'.
Would it were so on the other side of the Po, along
the Apennines, everywhere else in Italy ! There
the Indian corn is withering; the grapes are
stunted in their growth, the earth is cracking, and
the fountains are drying up. The Riviera of Genoa
is all white and hoary with dust, as other lands are
with snow in the winter time.
• The priests put up endless prayers for rain ; they
are sure to get it—if they wait.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING THE TVEEK.

(From the Regzstrar-General's Weekly Return.)

It is satisfactory to find that in last week (end-
ing Saturday, the 10th inst.) there was a decrease
in the mortality of London, as compared with that
of two previous weeks. In the third week of
July
the deaths were 1,171; in the two following they
rose to 1,207 and 1,225 respectively
mean
ofthe
ely; last week
each
they again declined to 1,172. T
tempera-
ture of the air has been above 60 de in
last nine weeks, with the exceptFo.n of the first
week in July, when it was 59.7 deg. Last week it
was as high as 64.4 deg.
The average number of deaths, as derived from
1 the returns of corresponding weeks in the 10 years
1851-60, is raised to a certain extent by the cholera
that prevailed in this month in 1854. If the
deaths from the epidemic of that year are excluded,
and the average corrected for increase of popula-
tion, it will be seen that the number returned for
last week is less by about 60 than that obtained by
calculation.
Diarrhoea was fatal last week in 177 cases, of
which 161 occurred to children, ch3fi7efl,y,yedaiirns:adnites.
d
Cholera or choleraic diarrhoea was also fatal in 13
cases, 6 of which occurred to children less
"diarrhoea
(two years of age. A female servant, aged
at 56, Packington-street, Islington, o
(two days), true cholera (one day) ;"a chaser-master,
st
57 years, at 8, Woodbridge-street North,
spasmodic Clerken-
well, from what is described as " genuine
cholera (45 hours)." Thin erthe sub-district
11 deaths from
dsioaurtrhh, 5 diarrhoea
in
nn
that o
Islington,f c Christ
i st
in Somers-town, sin St.l Leonard, Church
in
ai
v
TyphusPoplar,7 in S
exhibitst. Peter,
n
thfo.r the deaths re-
ferred to it, whiehharder hardly exceeded 20 in the two
previous weeks,
rose
eonjh o, f a to 43. Of these, 5 were re-
turned in the sub-district Haggerstone Vest. The
general labourer, aged 5 years, died at 18,
John's-place, n s-place, Grange-road, Bermondsey, of "scarla-
tina maligna (13 days) ;" and it is reported by the
medical attendant that four children were suffering
from the complaint in a room about 10 feet square,
which is used for all purposes.
Two widows are returned as having died at the
ages of 96 and 98 years respectively. The husband
of the elder of the two women, who was a coal-
whipper at Bluegate-fields, St. George-in-the-East,
died 12 days before his wife, at the age of 91.
Last week the birth of 881 boys and 878 girls, in
all 1,759 chilren, were registered in London. In the
ten corresponding weeks of the years 1851-60 the
average number was 1,577.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.809
in. The readings rose to 2995 in. on Tuesday and
Saturday, and fell to 29.53 in. on Thursday, T
determined by Mr.
' "e
.
mean temperature of the air in the week
deg., which is 2.5 deg. above the average of 64-4
same week in 43 years (asf the
Glaisher). The mean daily temperature rose to
66.1 deg. on Monday, and 68.2 deg. on Saturday,
which are respectively 4.1 deg. and 6.4 deg. above
the averages. The greatest elevation of the thermo-
meter in the shade was 81
the lowest night tempera;
day was 27.6 deg ; on
Wednesday. The range usredewg.asonso.S7adtuergd.aoyn;
of temperature on Wednes-
deg. The mean dailyirange was 21.2 deg. The
greatest heat
.3
deg.nThursday it was only 11.9
the sun was 135 deg. on Monday.
Thewas
6msean temperature of the water of the Thames
The difference between the mean
dew-point temperature and air temperature was '7'l
deg. The mean degree of humidity of the air was
80, complete saturation being represented by 100.
The general direction of the wind was south-west.
Rain fell to the amount of 0.32 in., nearly all of it
on Thursday. A brilliant meteor was observed at
9h. 50m. p.m. on Tuesday ; meteors Were also ob-
served on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITS.—A Parliamentary
return just issued shows that the quantity of spirits charged
with duty for home consumption fell from 28,661,674
gamma is 1859 to 26,863,361 in 1860. In that year the
duty on home-made spirits was raised to 10s., and the de-
crease in the quantity was in these, and almost wholly in
Ireland and Scotland. The quantity of British sPirifs
charged with duty for home consumption was 23,729,026
gallons in 1859, and 21,338,448 in 1860. In the first three
months of the present year the quantity of home-made
*hits used for home consumption was only 4,670,797
galloue,