An attempt to determine the influence of the seasons and weather on sickness and mortality / [Anon].

  • William Augustus Guy
Date:
[1843?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    6/20 (page 6)
    To render the results of this Table more apparent, a second Table is added similar to the one already given, and exhibiting at a glance the order of the several quarters in respect of sickness, beginning with that in which the sickness is greatest. Table IV. Forms of Disease. Order of the Quarters. Febrile affections.1 Catarrhal affections.I Contagious exanthemata . . , . 3 2 4 1 Scrofula, gout, dropsy, &c. . , . . 1 Disorders of the organs of digestion . . ] Diseases of the organs of respiration . 1 4 2 3 Rheumatic affections ...... 2 4 3 1 Diseases of the nervous system . 2 1 3 4 ,, skin. 2 3 4 1 Inflammation and its consequences . 1 2 3 4 ()ther diseases. 3 4 2 • 1 Accidents, &c. 3 2 J 4 It would appear then that the disorders which determine the order of the quarters in respect of sickness, or which may be said to govern the law of sickness, are the febrile affections, catarrh, the contagious ex¬ anthemata, and disorders of the digestive organs; to which may be added the mixed class, consisting of scrofula,'gout, dropsy, &c. The diseases of the organs of respiration follow precisely the inverse order of those already named; and it will be presently shown that these are the diseases which chiefly govern the order of mortality. On comparing the fourth with the second Ta*ble, it will be seen that, with the exception of the diseases already specified, (febrile and catarrhal affections, contagious exanthemata, disorders of the digestive organs, and the mixed group, including scrofula, gout, dropsy, &c. on the one hand, and the diseases of the organs of respiration on the other,) there is no relation between any other disease named in the Table, and any one condition of atmosphere. Limiting our attention, then, to those diseases in which such a relation has been shown to exist, it will be interesting to inquire whether that relation which exists with regard to the quarters, holds good also with regard to the weather, for it might happen that the temperature and hygrometric state of the air were themselves merely coincident wdth something peculiar to the several quarters, irrespective of all those atmospheric conditions which can be measured by instruments. To determine this point in respect of the temperature, I have pre¬ pared the following table, in which the months are arranged in the order of their temperature, beginning with the hottest month; and the number of diseases is stated for each month, and for periods of two months and three months respectively. The mixed group of diseases, wdiich vary directly as the temperature are placed above, and the diseases of the organs of res])iration, which vary inversely as the temperature, below the line showing the order of the months.