IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 5849 births and 5153 deaths were registered during the week ending May 2nd. The annual rate of mortality in these towns, which had been 22-5 and 24'3 per 1000 in the preceding two weeks, further rose to 26'8 last week. The rate was 23'3 in London and 29-7 in the twenty-seven provincial towns. During the first four weeks of the current quarter the death-rate in the twenty-eight towns averaged 24-1 per 1000, and exceeded by 2'5 the mean rate in the

more »

... esponding periods of the ten years 1881-90. The lowest rates in these towns last week were 15'0 in Birkenhead, 16'8 in Norwich, 17'3 in Bristol, and 19'5 in Brighton; the highest rates were 36'1 in Leeds, 38'5 in Blackburn, 42'1 in Halifax, and 70'5 in Leeds. The exceptionally high rates in the lastmentioned towns were due to a severe epidemic of influenza. The deaths referred to the principal zymotic diseases, which had been 420 and 428 in the preceding two weeks, further rose last week to 462; they included 188 from whooping-cough, 127 from measles, 53 from diarrhoea, 37 from diphtheria, 31 from " fever " (principally enteric), and not one from small-pox. These diseases caused the lowest death-rates in Derby, Birkenhead, Norwich, Bristol, and Sunderland, and the highest rates in Leicester, Blackburn, Manchester, and Portsmouth.