A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    700/820 (page 644)
    of the appearance of the disease. The saving in the cost of a single epidemic would amply repay the outlay. As in the other islands, the black troops are now much more unhealthy than the white, and the sanitary condition of their barracks and 'then' food evidently require looking into. Phthisis and chronic dysentery are the chid diseases causing mortality. The average of 1859-64 gave 1015 admissions! and 20-46 deaths per 1000 of strength. In 1865 there were;22-64 deaths pe>^ 1000 of strength, or, excluding violent deaths, 20-49; of these phthisis caused 14-34, or no less than 70 per cent, of total deaths. St Lucia. Strength of garrison = 100 men, now usually black troops. Civil popula; tion (in 1871), 36,610. St Lucia is divided into two parts : Basseterre, the lowest and most cultit vated part, is very swampy; Capisterre, hilly, with deep narrow ravines, full of vegetation. The climate is similar to that of the other islands, but is more rainy and humid. Diseases of the White Troops.—From 1817-36 ; average strength, 241 average deaths, 30 = 122-8 per 1000 of strength. Of the 122-8 deaths, 63-] were from fevers, 39-3 from bowel disease, and 12-5 from lung disease. Pigeon Island (a few miles from St Lucia) was formerly so unhealthy tha on one occasion 22 men out of 55 died of dysentery in one year, and of thi whole 55 men not one escaped sickness. The cause is supposed to have beer- bad water. Now Pigeon Island is considered healthy. Although the mortality was formerly so great, St Lucia has been healthy for some years. _ . In 1859, mean strength of white troops, 96 ; admissions, 113, and there vr, not a single death, although, if the mortality had been at the rate of tht twenty years ending 1836, 12 men woidd have died. . . . , Better food, some improvement in barracks, and the use of ram instead o well water, have been the causes of this extraordinary change. 22 men were admitted with continued fever, 18 with ophthalmia, and onlv 2 with venereal. In 1860 there was no case of dysentery and only two of diarrhoea amonp 100 men in this island, where formerly there would have been not only man; cases, but four deaths. One man died from phthisis, or at the rate of 10 pe- ^In 1861, out of 94 men, there was one death from jaundice, or at the rat* of 10-6 per thousand. , In 1862, there was 88 men on the island ; one man was drowned , then was no death from disease. No case of jaundice was admitted. In 1863 there was 55 men, and one death from accident j there were bl admissions, of which 15 were accidents. Invaliding.—In 1860-65 there was discharged from the ^ mdward a Leeward Command 28-86 per 1000 of strength. British Guiana. (193,941 inhabitants.) No white troops are at present stationed at Demcrara. This station in the West Indian Command is on the mainland extendmp from the equator (nearly) to 10° N., 200 to 300 mdes, and inland to an uol certain distance. It is a flat alluvial soil of clay and sand, covered with vegetation. The water of Georgetown is not good j it is drawn from a fresh-water iah