Epidemic Influenza

Abstract

PROF. HEWLETT'S interesting article in NATURE for October 24 may justify the statement of a few facts collected during the last quarter of a century. Dealing with the Registrar-General's returns for London and considering twenty deaths per week as epidemic if this number or more, is maintained for successive weeks, there have been twenty-eight epidemics since the reassertion of the complaint in 1890. Of these there have only been two, in the years 1910 and 1911, with fewer deaths than 100. The only years in the epoch without influenza being epidemic are 1896 and 1901. The most serious epidemics since 1890 occurred in, 1891, 1892, and 1899–1900, in each of which there were in London upwards of 2000 deaths. In recent years the most serious epidemic occurred in 1908 with a total of 1961 deaths, hut the summer and autumn epidemics of the present year bid fair to be at least as severe.