During the seven weeks of extreme atmospheric cold in which the last
year ended and with which the present year opened, every one has been
startled by the mortality that has prevailed among the enfeebled and
aged population. Friends have been swept away in a manner most painful
to recall, under the influence of an external agency, as natural as it
is fatal in its course, and over which science, as yet, holds the most
limited control.

In the presence of these facts questions occur to the mind which have
the most practical bearing. Why should a community wake up one day
with catarrh or with the back of the throat unduly red and the tonsils
large? Why, in a particular village or town, shall the medical men be
summoned on some particular day to a number of places to visit
children with croup? What is the reason that cases of sudden death, by
so-called "apoplexy," crowd together into a few hours? Why, in a given
day or week, are shoals of the aged swept away, while the young live
as before? These are questions which curative and preventive medicine
have not yet mastered as might be desired. Curative medicine, at the
name of them, too often stands abashed, if her interpreter be honest;
and preventive medicine says, if her interpreter be honest, "The
questions wait as yet for full interpretation."

Still, we are not altogether ignorant; some circumstances appear to be
followed by effects so definite, that we may almost consider we have
before us, in true position, cause and effect. Let us look at this
position in reference to _the simple influence of temperature on the
value of life_.