The influenza has nearly gone. In the week ending Satur-
day last, the deaths in London from that cause were only 314, as against 436 and 506 in the two previous weeks ; and a still greater falling-off was apparent in the deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs. These were only 761, but had been in the two previous weeks 1,192 and 1,465. The total deaths in the Metropolis were 2,500, and the total births 2,808. That is, for the first time for several weeks, the births have exceeded the deaths. The death-rate in London was equal to an annual death-rate of 30.6 per thousand, as against one of 40 in the week before, and 46 in the week before that. The rest of the great towns show improvement. The Brighton rate is down to 23.7, the Bradford rate to 13.8. Norwich, however, has a rate of 39.6. In all probability, this week's returns will show that in London the epidemic has ceased to claim new victims, and that the sick are rapidly recovering. That is certainly the impression of the West-End chemists, who report that, after having been pressed beyond endurance to supply influenza medicines, there came at the beginning of the week a sudden lull in the demand, and that now hardly a bottle of the specifics, or reputed specifics, is asked for. The suddenness of its disap- pearance, when it does go, is certainly not the least curious of
the phenomena connected with the influenza. •
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