PARIS

The Unusual Drouth in France  For the past six weeks, the entire territory of France has been subjected to an unusual hot spell and drouth. While such conditions are not rare in other regions, they are very abnormal here, as this country more than any other in Europe constitutes a temperate zone, in which heat, cold or rain is never excessive. Not since the middle of the last century, the meteorologists tell us, has there been such a year. The morbidity and mortality statistics have registered the inevitable effects of the abnormal conditions. The number of deaths from sunstroke, cerebral or pulmonary congestion and infantile diarrheas has increased greatly. There has not, however, been a genuine epidemic of any kind. Everywhere (but in the rural districts more particularly) large numbers bathed in the rivers to secure relief from the excessive heat, with the result that many deaths by drowning occurred.