An attempt to determine the influence of the seasons and weather on sickness and mortality.

  • Guy, William A. (William Augustus), 1810-1885.
Date:
[1843?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An attempt to determine the influence of the seasons and weather on sickness and mortality. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    merous. The table is taken from the Registrar-General’s summary of the weekly tables of mortality for the metropolis for 1842. Table IX. Number of Deaths. Order of Forms of Disease. First Quarter. Second Quarter. Third Quarter. Fourth Quarter. the Quarters. Diseases of the Organs of Res-1 piration j Old Age ....... 4,259 3,159 2,821 3,751 14 2 3 1,051 733 668 894 14 2 3 Diseases of Uncertain Seat* . 1,560 1,331 1,437 1,387 13 4 2 Other Diseases, in which thel greatest mortality is in the ) 372 318 315 335 14 2 3 first Quarter! . . • • j Epidemic, Endemic, and Con-1 1,841 1,588 2,231 2,036 3 4 12 tagious Diseases . . . . j Diseases of the Organs of Di-1 gestion j Diseases of the Nervous System Diseases in which the greatest 1 806 715 1,117 758 3 14 2 1,918 1,831 1,944 1,812 3 12 4 mortality occurred in the > 589 551 486 658 4 12 3 Fourth Quarter! . . . . j Total 12,396 10,226 11,019 11,631 14 3 2 It results from this table that there was no class of diseases which followed the order of the total mortality ; in other words there was no class of diseases that by the great difference in the mortality which it occasioned in the several quarters of the year might be said to determine or govern the total mortality. It will be seen, however, that the deaths from diseases of the organs of respiration and from old age followed the order of the total mortality, except that the second and third quarters were inverted, and that there was so great a difference in their fatality in the several quarters that they must of necessity have exercised a marked influence on the order of the total mortality. The excess of deaths from diseases of uncertain seat in the first quarter, added to the still greater excess of deaths from diseases of the organs of respiration and from old age, gave to that quarter a decided predominance over all the others. In four out of eight of the classes in the table, indeed, the first quarter stands first in point of mortality. Again in the case of the fourth quarter, which ranks next in point of mortality, the large class of epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases reinforces the mortality from diseases of the lungs and old age, and gives to that quarter a de- cided excess over the second and third. All that remains, then, is to explain how it happened that the summer quarter proved more fatal than the spring quarter in spite of the excess of deaths from the diseases of the lungs and from old age, which occurred during the spring. The explanation is found in the great excess of deaths from diseases of the Including inflammation and its consequences, haemorrhage, dropsy, scrofula, scurvy, gout, atrophy, debility, &c. &c. f This class includes most diseases of the skin, and deaths from intemperance, starvation, and violence. 1 Including deaths from diseases of the organs of circulation, of the urinary organs ; from rheumatic affections, from childbirth, and from diseases not specified.