The Registrar-General's returns of mortality are again very bad, the
average in London for last week being 41.2 per 1,000, or double the normal rate. The deaths exceeded by 1,583 the average for the same week during the last ten years ; 473 were due to influenza, and 1,366 to diseases of the respiratory organs, being about three times the usual return. There is no evidence, though there is an impression, that influenza is departing. The Westminster Gazette, by the way, gently quizzed us for being too pessimistic in our article of last week, especially quoting a remark that a fever was approaching from Russia which was dangerous, but not derived from malaria. It will now, perhaps, acknowledge that the statement was no fancy. The disease which, when we wrote, had just crossed the German frontier, has now reached the low quarters of Berlin, causing many deaths and much suffering. It is a fierce fever which attacks the month, causing the loss of all teeth in a few hours, after which it kills, or departs leaving its victims toothless. Dr. Virchow believes it to be the "foot-and-mouth disease of cattle," probably transmitted to the human subject by diseased milk. It is, however, infectious, and moves West- ward. We shall know more about it in a few days ; bat if it reached our shores, it would be a terrible addition to our stock of painful complaints,—and, we repeat, there is no reason, except our short experience of exemption, why it should not.
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