Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the sanitary state of the army in India : with précis of evidence / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary State of the Army in India.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the sanitary state of the army in India : with précis of evidence / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The mortality rate was as high as 134 in 1804, in the Mortality first Mahratta war, and it was as low as 41 in 1852. It °troop^H was high again in the years of mutiny, and it has been subsequently lower than the Indian standard. From the rate of 55 in 1770-99? the rate rose to 85 in the 30 years 1800-29; and the mortality fell to 58 in the 27 years 1830-56; so that the death-rate of the British soldier since the first occupation of the country down to the present day has oscillated round 69 per 1,000. If the mortality is set down at 69 in 1,000, it follows that, besides deaths by natural causes, 61, or, taking the English standard, 60 head per 1,000 of our troops perish in India annually. It is at that expense that we have held dominion there for a century ; a company out of every regiment has been sacrificed every 20 months. These companies fade away in the pr’me of life; leave few children ; and have to be replaced, at great cost, by successive shiploads of recruits. The Rates of Mortality at different Ages in India. To determine the rate of mortality among British Mortality at troops in India, of different ages, as well as of different DI1J^NT terms of service, the returns of the 10 years 1847-56 have been used. The mortality in the Bombay and Madras presidencies was much lower in those years than it had been previously ; and the Table includes the non-effectives —invalids, pensioners, and men on the town major’s list— at advanced ages. The mortalitv of war in India is, therefore, relatively unimportant; and we can appreciate the effects of the ordinary causes of mortality on men of all ages, from 10 to 75. The mortality of boys, and of all under the age of 20, is much lower than it is ever afterwards; and other evi- dence shows that young men in favourable circumstances, and children with proper care, suffer less than adults in India. The mortality per 1,000 at the age of 20-25 is high See Table 11 (56*4) ; at the next age (25-30) it is less (48*8); and [p* 11 post]; then it rises gradually to the age of 40 ; at the age of 40-45 the mortality is again higher (61*6) than it was at the earlier age of 20-25 ; the mortality afterwards falls. It is worthy of remark, however, that the excess of mortality in India is nearly the same at all the seven quinquennial periods of age from 20 to 55, except at the first and the fifth, when the recruits join and leave their
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