Mortality of Philadelphia for 1860 : report on meteorology and epidemics : read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, February 6, 1861 / by Wilson Jewell.

  • Jewell, Wilson, 1800-1867
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mortality of Philadelphia for 1860 : report on meteorology and epidemics : read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, February 6, 1861 / by Wilson Jewell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [Extracted from The American Journal of the Medical Sciences for July, 1861.] Skrtiliti ai Jtilahluiia for 1860. REPORT ON METEOROLOGY AND EPIDEMICS. READ BEFORE THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY 6, 1861. BY //^^\ WILSON JEWELL, M.D./ In offering my report for 18G0, I must again acknowledge my indebted- ness to James A. Kirkpatrick, Esq., Prof, of Civil Engineering in the Philada. High School, for an abstract of the tables of his meteorological observations during the year. (pp. 82-83.) The accuracy of these tables is undoubted, while their usefulness for present and future reference will be admitted. The following summary of these observations is from his own pen. The mean temperature of the year (1860) was less than four-tenths of a degree below that of the year 1859, and nearly two-tenths of a degree below the average for the last nine years. The maximum temperature (953°) occurred on the 20th of July. The minimum temperature, one degree above zero, was on the 2d of February. The warmest day of the year was the 20th of July, when the mean tem- perature was $1.1°. The coldest day was the 2d of February, the mean for that day being 9.2 degrees. Of the seasons, the spring was one degree warmer, and the summer one degree colder than the average for nine years, while the winter and autumn were very close to the average. _ Of the months, the greatest variation from the average was in Decem- ber, which was nearly 3° colder than usual, and was the coldest December since 1856. . . . , The maximum pressure of the atmosphere (29.418 inches), occurred on the 14th of December; and the minimum pressure (29.099), on the 18th of February The average pressure was very nearly the same as that for 1859 It may be interesting to notice that the average pressure, as indi- cated by the mean of the three observations, is very nearly the same as the mean of the observations at 9 P. M., the difference for the whole ten years being only .002 of an inch. . It is becoming also to inform the college that, in consequence of the inauguration of the new law for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, which went into operation, under the supervision of the Board of Health, on the 1st of July, I860, I have rearranged the tables that they might conform to those published by that Board, and have added tables of the births and marriages registered since the law was enforced I have also changed the order of grouping the diseases, which order has been faithfully preserved since 1850. This change occurs at a suitable /