On the influenza, or epidemic catarrhal fever of 1847-8 / By Thomas Bevill Peacock.

  • Thomas Bevill Peacock
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the influenza, or epidemic catarrhal fever of 1847-8 / By Thomas Bevill Peacock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    ending the 28rd. For the first two weeks of November, the temperature continued high ; the weather calm and dry, and the wind southerly and south-westerly. On Thursday the 16th, it was remarkably dark, the wind veered from south to north-west, and the temperature of the air fell from 54'3° on Monday the 15th, to 32T° on Friday the 19th, or from 11]° above the average of the previous twenty-five years to the same extent below it; making no less a difference than 22'2° in only four days. On the night of Friday the 19th, the thermometer actually stood at 26'7°, and the earth was frozen. The barometer remained for the whole time unusually high. On Saturday the 20th, a dense fog covered the Thames for five hours ; the temperature continued low, and the weather calm. On Sunday the 21st, however, the sky was overcast, the air charged with moisture, and the wind changed its northerly direction to that of south-by-east. By Monday the 22nd, the mean temperature had risen to 44'7°, and the wind was again south-south-west, in which quarter it remained to the end of the week, November 27th. The air was damp, and rain fell on the 22nd, 23rd, 26th, and 27th. The temperature was high, having averaged 46'5°, or from 2° to 9° above that of the preceding week. The barometer began to fall on the 20th, and was very low on the 27th. For the next week, ending December 4th, the average temperature was 47'9° ; the pre- vailing winds were south-west, and a large quantity of rain fell. During part of the following week, the weather continued similar : but there was a remarkable fall in the barometer, which on the 7th stood at 28'381, or lower than at any period since the great storm of January 13th, 1843. On Monday the 20th, the weather again changed ; the wind shifted from south and south-east to east-north-east, and the temperature fell to 38'1°, continuing low to the end of the month. For the month of November, the average temperature had been