Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding, among the troops in Western Africa, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius; : prepared from the records of the Army Medical Department and War-Office returns [by A.M. Tulloch, H. Marshall and T.G. Balfour]. / Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty.
- Great Britain. Army Medical Services
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding, among the troops in Western Africa, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius; : prepared from the records of the Army Medical Department and War-Office returns [by A.M. Tulloch, H. Marshall and T.G. Balfour]. / Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![It is out of the question to attribute this rapid deterioration of life entirely to the influence of climate, because in that case we should find the same feature manifested in a corresponding degree among the higher ranks of officers, who, though between the ages of 40 and 50, have suffered comparatively Uttle in this Colony; and so far from any similar feature being mani- fested among the civil population, extreme longevity is nearly as common as in this kingdom. In the absence of any other cause likely to induce this peculiarity, we are led to believe it a great measure the result of the intemperance so prevalent among the troops, which, Mauritius, Influence of Age, &c. in though it may not add materially to the mortality of persons in the vigour of youth, is likely, if persisted in, to sap the springs of life and expose its victim to the diseases and broken constitution incident to old age ere he has attained those years which among the more temperate may be held to constitute the prime of manhood. Whether this rapid deterioration of life is the result of the soldier's own intemperance or of the influence of climate, however, it seems equally necessary, as a remedial measure, to limit as much as possible the period of his residence in this island, as has recently been done in the West Indies, by causing the latter years of his tour of foreign service to be passed in some other Colony where the facilities to intemperance are fewer and the climate more favourable to a broken constitution. This measure certainly offers a greater probability of reform- ation than leaving the soldier for a long series of years exposed to the temptations which originally seduced him into a course of dissipation, and might afford some hope of such a renovation of constitution as would render him for many years a healthy and efficient soldier, instead of sinking into an imtimely grave or being thrown at a comparatively early age on the pension list. To such an arrangement there might be an objection if the health of the soldier was found to improve by length of residence, or, as it is technically called, by acclimatization; but the fallacy of such a supposition is not only proved indirectly from the facts before stated in regard to the increase of mortality with the advance of age, but directly by reierence to the relative proportion of deaths during each successive year of residence, among the different corps which have arrived in the island since 1826:— > > 5 > ] st Year of Residence ■ 2nH ,, 3rd 4tl« 5th ,, 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th ,, Uih Total Averaue 29th Foot arrived Sept. 1826. Died. 13 25 19 13 17 34 17 18 18 16 5 195 18 99th Foot arrived Feb. 1826. 87th Foot arrived July, 1831. Died. 7 6 10 14 15 22 13 12 18 25 20 162 15 Died. 13 18 12 15 IS 18 94 Table XII. Showing the In- fluence of Length of Residence on Corps^ serving in the Mau- ritius. {hq^ lei The strength of each of these corps during the above period was very nearly the same, viz. about 500 men, yet in two of them the mortality during the first four years will be found considerably lower than in the subsequent ones,—thus clearly proving that their health a'*^ ^ must have deteriorated the longer they remained in the island. ^dtan^B ■ ■ The mortality in the 99th, compared with that of the other regiments, affords another proof '^5aqoo^T s how erroneous is the supposition that a corps composed of young men must necessarily suffer oiJawisMsff; to a greater extent in a tropical climate than one composed of soldiers at a more mature age Having been raised so late as in 1825, four-fifths of that regiment were under 20 when sent to the island, yet it lost fewer than any of the others; and during the first three years of Its service there, the ratio of mortality was even lower than among the most favoured class of troops in Britain. 0 0(5 , 89sA lla nworfa 8B .enitiinsM '^Ht rti ^tqk io ^^n^vbfl gHt diiw noijutitanoo io xiobij-fonf^Job sriT ■v-'^^m ^o^qsn aidt ni noitEiaqo eli Jrdidxs oT .biqBi Y.l^ff'a^'fys ng^'d ev^d f?.iirv .^ihizm gasrfl ffut-iorrr'lo 33jGS)7fjai 9Yreg9'j;:>oiq sdt noeii. vIiBsb :,}iinA faatinlj arit ni gni'no^ nQ has. . ■ v>|b >q X Jnd oitBi srit ,5SJ bns cl ,0(1 btifi 0^'io 89§B odJ nes'wt^a <i •j.oi.ani aon^^isftib isdi s Jg'jbfo arif toHflfi oJ am^sa ^no/oO arrit ni mm\)\?.v\ Tfltnaup * (0:iq2ib sldfiiliBraai ^f^97 «—,?i9ib(o ■ gnooy; sdi - ---^^ nG.?E/odt laq Od ' bsabni](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365313_0111.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
