Several persons have maintained that the extreme cold exerted considerable influence upon the death-rate; and a glance at the two columns in the table indicating the number of deaths caused by pneumonia and bronchitis would seem to justify this contention. How great the difference was, as compared with normal years, will be obvious when we call attention to the fact that, whereas in the twenty-second week of the siege (January 28–February 3) 627 persons succumbed to bronchitis, in the preceding year only seventy-six deaths were caused by that disease between January 30 and February 5, and that, whereas from 465 to 468 persons succumbed to pneumonia between January 21 and February 18, 1871, the number of deaths caused by that disease in the corresponding period of the previous year varied from 90 to 119 per week. According to the unanimous verdict of the Paris physicians, typhus fever did not make its appearance during the siege. MORTALITY DURING THE SIEGE OF PARIS ──────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬────────┬─────── _No. │_First and last│ _Important ordinances and │_Average│_Total of the│ day of the │ events._ │ no. │ no. week._│ week._ │ │ deaths │deaths │ │ │ in the │during │ │ │ years │ the │ │ │1867–9._│siege._ ──────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────┼─────── 〃 │ 〃 │ 〃 │ 〃 │ 〃 │ │ │ │ ──────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼────────┼─────── 1│Sept. 4–10 │ │ 889│ 981 2│Sept. 11–17 │ │ 852│ 1263 3│Sept. 18–24 │Sept. 19, investment completed │ 821│ 1272 4│Sept. 25–Oct. 1│ │ 766│ 1344 5│Oct. 2–8 │Oct. 8, meat ration fixed at │ │ │ │ 100 gr. for adults, 50 gr. │ │ │ │ for children │ 754│ 1483 6│Oct. 9–15 │ │ 737│ 1610 7│Oct. 16–22 │ │ 761│ 1746 8│Oct. 23–9 │ │ 754│ 1878 9│Oct. 30–Nov. 5 │Oct. 30, requisition of fuel │ 767│ 1762 10│Nov. 6–12 │ │ 781│ 1885 11│Nov. 13–19 │ │ 780│ 2064 12│Nov. 20–26 │Nov. 21, requisition of │ │ │ │ potatoes │ 793│ 1927 13│Nov. 27–Dec. 3 │ │ 833│ 2023 14│Dec.