The description below of infant suffocation in London, published in the Lancet a century ago, bears a striking similarity to current epidemiologic characteristics of SIDS. The deaths of no less than 503 infants aged less than one year were referred to suffocation within registration London during last year [1878], equal to 3.9 per 1,000 children born. In the two preceding years [1876 and 1877] the deaths of infants from this cause were 488 and 486 respectively. Previous to 1876 the causes of death among infants aged less than one year were not separately distinguished in the Registrar-General's Weekly Return. The deaths from suffocation in London, at all ages have, however, shown a considerable increase in recent years, and, as during the three years 1876-7-8 no less than 88 per cent of the deaths from this cause were of infants under one year of age, it may be assumed that the increase has mainly occurred among infants. Of the 503 deaths of infants from suffocation in London last year, 140 occurred in the first, 147 in the second, 88 in the third, and 128 in the fourth quarters of the year. These infant deaths from suffocation are almost twice as numerous in cold winter weather as in summer; for instance the fatal cases in August did not exceed 24, whereas they were 43 in December.