12 DECEMBER 1874, Page 3

The "cold spell," as the Americans call it, of the

week ending the 5th inst. killed off Londoners very fast. The weather was atrocious, cold, damp, and windy, and the very old and very young perished under it like flies. Though cold diminishes some forms of disease, still the mortality rose to 2,122, or 417 over the average mortality of that week in the last ten years, and sixty per cent, higher than it had been six weeks before. In the three weeks ending 14th November, the annual death rate among persons above sixty was only 65-9 per 1,000, whereas in this week it rose to 137-7.