The Sun. — 1858-10-13 (London, England)

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.  (From the Registrar-General's .Return.)  Am", .......  The deaths in London which had been in the previous week 1,021, declined in the week ending. Saturday, Oct. 9, to 993. In the ten years, 184857, the average number of deaths in the weeks corresponding with last week was 1,073 ; but as the deaths returned for last week occurred in an increased population, the average, with a view to, comparison, should be raised in proportion to the increase, a correction which will make it 1,180. When the deaths from cholera in epidemic seaems are eliminated from the calculation, the comparison will show that the deaths in the present return are less by about 100 than would have resulted from the average rate of mortality at the beginning of October, Sixty-three districts of England, in which the mortality is least, have been selected, and their'average rate of mortality in the last three months of the year has been ascertained. If the deaths in London last week had been according to " the healthy rate" thus obtained, and which it is useful to adopt as standard, they would have been 770 ; and the actual excess, or the number of unnatural deaths, is 223.  The mortality from scarlatina continues to crease, the deaths from it having risen from 125 and 134 in the two previous weeks to 145 last week. All of these 145 deaths, with the exception of 10, occurred to children under 10 years of age. The corrected average of this disease for 10 corresponding weeks is 76. It reached a higher mortality than the present return shows in the first week of October, 1848, when the deaths from it rose to 180. Six deaths from scarlatina were registered last week in the sub-district of St. Margaret, Westminster, six in Islington East, and seven in Bow. Of 41 violent deaths registered last week, 11 were cases of suicide. . .  Last week the births of 810 boys and 711 girls, in all 1,521, were registered in London. In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1848-57 the average number was 1,382. At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean. height of the barometer in the week was 29.685 in. Thetarometric pressure varied from 29.20 to 29.92 in. The mean temperature of the air in the week was 52.1 deg., which is 0.4 deg. below the average of the same week in 43 years (as determined by Mr Glaisher). The thermometer in:the shade attained its highest point on Sunday, when it was 69.6 deg.; it fell to its lowest point on Saturday, when it was 35.4 deg. The range of the week was, therefore, 34.1 deg. The mean daily range was 19.7. The difference between the mean dew-point temperature and air temperature was 6.9'deg. The mean temperature of the water of the Thames was 58.1 deg. The mean degree of humidity of the air was 75. The wind was nearly always south-west. The rainfall was 0.47 in.  In the 13 weeks ending Saturday, Oct. 2, 14,345 deaths were registered in London ; a number which differs little from that of the same quarter of last year, when it was 14,259. The mean temperature of the quarter was 61 deg., which is lower by 2.3 deg. than that of the corresponding period of last year, but higher than those of the preceding three years. Of the 14,345 deaths, 5,032 attributed to diseases of the zymotic character, constitute a high. proportion, which is drawn to the extent of mor than than four fifths from the youngest of the popu lation. Scarlatina has carried off many children, and it has increased manifestly during the latter half of the quarter. The deaths referred to it are  1,243, and more numerous than in any of the corresponding quarters of 1854-57, in which the numbers varied from 349 to g7B. Croup and hoopingcough also exhibit an increase on those quarters. Diarrhoea and summer cholera have been perceptibly less fatal than usual. In the summer quarter of 1857 the deaths from the former of these complaints were 2,343, from the latter 177 ' . while the respective numbers of the quarter now terminated are 1,391 and 90.  Of 500 deaths produced by means of violence, 412 were the results of accident or negligence, 21 were by murder or manslaughter, and 67 by suicide.