The Weather and Health of London ¹

Abstract

II. AN examination of the curve for the whole mortality (Fig. 4, NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 144) shows that the great preponderance of deaths in London takes place during the coldest months of the year. Of the diseases to which this excessive mortality is due, the first place must be assigned to diseases of the respiratory organs, the more marked of which are given in Figs. 12 to 15. About one in eight of all deaths that occur is caused by bronchitis, and one in sixteen by pneumonia; so that nearly one fifth of the deaths is occasioned by these two diseases of the respiratory organs. Our researches appear to warrant the conclusion that the greatest fatality from these diseases occurs when the temperature is between 32° and 40°. In New York, when the winter temperature is 10°.0 lower than in London, the mortality from bronchitis and pneumonia is greatly less; on the other hand, in Melbourne, where the winter temperature is about 10°.0 higher than that of London, the mortality from diseases of the respiratory organs forms but a small fraction of the whole deaths.