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Show II ll HEALTH AND THE OPEN WINTER. THE old-time theory that an open winter is prolific of ill health is disproven for the present season, by reports from various parts of the country and certainly in our owkj community. ll ! The precipitation here has been greater thi for a number of years, thus making it anythii0 but an open winter and at the same time the per t centage of disease has increased in proportion f ' the rainfall. We do not recall a winter when theL was as high a mortality record for the thr. , months just past, as the present year. With j also there has been a very high per cent of diseaL recorded, embracing pneumonia, la grippe, infili : enza, bronchitis, etc., which according to super stition, should abate during a severe winter. Per bans the explanation might be found in the fac i that the temperature has been unusually mild con ' sidering the amount of precipitation, mnkiiu rather an unprecedented combination which ma3 be to blame for our local conditions. We notice from the Chicago health bulletins, that winter there has been unusually mild, the thermometer on January 28 recording GO degrees In addition to this there was practically no snow throughout the months of December and January. Their records show that during the above period there was a reduction of 29.6 per cent in the pneu- monia death rate as compared with the average oi a like period for the previous five years ; 23.3 per cent., in influenza and 7.8 per cent., in the rate for tuberculosis. There was likewise a reduction of measles, which dropped 82 per cent. ; scarlet fever, 54 per cent ; diphtheria, 24.2 per cent., and whoop ing cough, 18.2 per cent. Perhaps this might bt accounted for by the opportunity ,given by thq mild weather for outdoor living and better ventilation ven-tilation in living quarters. In our local condition there hanever been a better opportunity for ventilatiife during the nths just paBt, than the presJyear, but sejlw . ,.., 'prevented from tr"i 'M open very niuclR((Pram3Lj of snoTvand slush which has made everythingjut the pavements pave-ments almost impassible. I |