| Week ending | Fever | Smallpox | Griping in the guts | Measles | Convulsions | Teeth | Consumption | All causes | |||||||||
| July | 7 | 31 | 44 | 35 | 9 | 44 | 24 | 69 | 351 | ||||||||
| 14 | 38 | 55 | 34 | 5 | 37 | 17 | 54 | 353 | |||||||||
| 21 | 40 | 71 | 47 | 6 | 42 | 25 | 56 | 395 | |||||||||
| 28 | 43 | 71 | 37 | 3 | 49 | 18 | 48 | 367 | |||||||||
| Aug. | 4 | 38 | 68 | 39 | 6 | 31 | 23 | 47 | 347 | ||||||||
| 11 | 33 | 66 | 48 | — | 18 | 8 | 45 | 324 | |||||||||
| 18 | 49 | 86 | 41 | 1 | 26 | 20 | 48 | 374 | |||||||||
| 25 | 35 | 85 | 23 | 3 | 32 | 10 | 46 | 328 | |||||||||
| Sept. | 1 | 60 | 96 | 41 | — | 32 | 18 | 57 | 414 | ||||||||
| 8 | 32 | 99 | 48 | 3 | 22 | 16 | 32 | 374 | |||||||||
| 15 | 28 | 102 | 38 | 2 | 30 | 19 | 55 | 362 | |||||||||
| 22 | 27 | 72 | 32 | 3 | 29 | 11 | 57 | 327 | |||||||||
| 29 | 39 | 81 | 34 | 2 | 41 | 9 | 53 | 358 | |||||||||
| Oct. | 6 | 37 | 98 | 29 | — | 34 | 10 | 63 | 391 | ||||||||
| 13 | 36 | 75 | 25 | — | 35 | 17 | 49 | 311 | |||||||||
| 20 | 42 | 122 | 35 | 1 | 34 | 10 | 68 | 402 | |||||||||
| 27 | 24 | 75 | 36 | — | 38 | 15 | 45 | 294 | |||||||||
| Nov. | 3 | 34 | 83 | 21 | — | 30 | 11 | 41 | 322 | ||||||||
| 10 | 30 | 81 | 15 | — | 31 | 12 | 49 | 321 | |||||||||
| 17 | 31 | 70 | 16 | — | 24 | 10 | 58 | 304 | |||||||||
| 24 | 35 | 70 | 28 | — | 38 | 14 | 57 | 344 | |||||||||
| Dec. | 1 | 33 | 85 | 29 | — | 32 | 14 | 68 | 378 | ||||||||
| 8 | 33 | 66 | 28 | — | 36 | 11 | 53 | 327 | |||||||||
| 15 | 29 | 61 | 26 | — | 39 | 16 | 49 | 339 | |||||||||
| 22 | 34 | 68 | 21 | — | 32 | 11 | 52 | 335 | |||||||||
| 29 | 41 | 41 | 19 | — | 33 | 7 | 74 | 337 | |||||||||
The total of deaths by smallpox for the year, 2507 was the highest since the bills began, and remained the highest until 1681. It is open to us to suppose that it would not have been so high but for the epidemic of measles preceding. The measles not only made the first half of the year far more deadly than the second, within which most of the smallpox fell, but its effects may have aided the high mortality of smallpox itself, according to the experience of later times that infants and young children recovering from measles in a greatly weakened condition fell an easier prey to smallpox coming after[1192].
Morton passes from the fatal epidemic of 1674 (or, as he says, 1672), with the remark that the malady had not been epidemic again in London from that time until the date of his writing, 1692-94, a period of nearly twenty years; and that is on the whole borne out by the London bills and by Sydenham’s records so far as they extend. From 1687 to 1700, inclusive, the London bills grouped the measles deaths along with the deaths from smallpox, under the heading, “Flox, Smallpox and Measles”; in 1701 the total of measles, 4 deaths, is given as a separate item in the same bracket with smallpox; and in 1702 the heading of “Measles,” is restored to the place in the alphabetical list which it had held, except for that unaccountable break, from the beginning of the published bills in 1629. The following are the annual totals from and including the great epidemic of 1674:
| Year | Death from measles | |
| 1674 | 795 | |
| 1675 | 1 | |
| 1676 | 83 | |
| 1677 | 87 | |
| 1678 | 93 | |
| 1679 | 117 | |
| 1680 | 49 | |
| 1681 | 121 | |
| 1682 | 50 | |
| 1683 | 39 | |
| 1684 | 6 | |
| 1685 | 197 | |
| 1686 | 25 |
Thus for a good many years after the general prevalence of measles in 1674 the deaths from it in London averaged only about one and a half in the week, while in no year until 1705-6 is there an epidemic comparable to that of 1674. It is clear that the severe epidemics of measles came at first at very long intervals, and that the years between had a very moderate mortality from that disease.
Measles in the 18th century.
There is hardly a reference to be found to measles in medical or other writings until the annual accounts of the public health at Ripon, York, Plymouth, etc. in the third decade of the 18th century. The annual deaths from it in London, according to the bills, were as follows, from 1701, when the disease was restored to its separate place in the classification:
| Year | Measles deaths | |
| 1701 | 4 | |
| 1702 | 27 | |
| 1703 | 51 | |
| 1704 | 12 | |
| 1705 | 319 | |
| 1706 | 361 | |
| 1707 | 37 | |
| 1708 | 126 | |
| 1709 | 89 | |
| 1710 | 181 | |
| 1711 | 97 | |
| 1712 | 77 | |
| 1713 | 61 | |
| 1714 | 139 | |
| 1715 | 30 | |
| 1716 | 270 | |
| 1717 | 35 | |
| 1718 | 492 | |
| 1719 | 243 | |
| 1720 | 213 | |
| 1721 | 238 | |
| 1722 | 114 | |
| 1723 | 231 | |
| 1724 | 118 | |
| 1725 | 70 | |
| 1726 | 256 | |
| 1727 | 72 | |
| 1728 | 82 | |
| 1729 | 41 | |
| 1730 | 311 | |
| 1731 | 102 | |
| 1732 | 30 | |
| 1733 | 605 | |
| 1734 | 20 | |
| 1735 | 10 | |
| 1736 | 169 | |
| 1737 | 127 | |
| 1738 | 216 | |
| 1739 | 326 | |
| 1740 | 46 |
The high mortalities of 1705 and 1706 belonged to one continuous epidemic from October, 1705, to April, 1706 (Sir David Hamilton says that smallpox was common in London in July, 1705, but the deaths in the bills are not excessive). The epidemic followed a great prevalence of the autumnal diarrhoea of infants, so that it is probable the high mortality was due as much to a greater fatality of cases from the antecedent weakening, as to an unusual number of cases[1193]. The following were the weekly deaths in a population about one-sixth that of London now: