The hottest day of the existing summer in New York occurred, I learn, on the twenty-eighth of July. According to the New York Herald, on this torridest of torrid days, there were one hundred and ninety-four deaths in the Empire City from heat alone. The thermometer stood at ninety-nine in the shade. Broadway at noon was like a raging furnace; and on the river fronts the heat was of murderous intensity. Most of the dock labourers had to suspend operations, and at least a dozen stevedores working in the holds of ships were fatally stricken down. The majority of the victims, however, were elderly people and very young children.
Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2258—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, August 12, 1882, p.159