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
Catalogue details

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.

    64/126 (page 8)
    Cape of Good Hope. Most of the cases of common continued fever are said to have arisen from the immo- : . derate use of Cape brandy. That this may have had some effect in producing slight cases I. Cape District, jg exceedingly probable, but that it cannot have added in any material degree to the mortality is sufficiently evident from the fact, that the proportion of deaths, from all kinds of fever, is onlv higher by a mere fraction than what occurs in this country among the most select class of individuals insured in the Equitable Office, who may be supposed in a great measure exempt from the vice of intemperance. On reference to the General Abstract No. I. of Appendix, where the cases of fever treated in each year are enumerated, it will be found that, except in 1825, the number has been remarkably uniform. On that occasion the disease was principally confined to the 55th and 98th Regiments; of the former, 73 were attacked out of a strength of 366; of the latter, 113 out of 556, being exactly a fifth in each instance. The 49th, though also at Cape Town, did not suffer more than usual, nor did the disease extend to the troops at Simon's Town. It is said to have been somewhat different from the usual form prevalent in the garrison, assuming in most cases a mild typhoid character, and was supposed to have originated with the 98th Regiment, a corps recently raised, and which had then newly arrived in the garrison. Eruptive fevers have been exceedingly rare, only 9 cases and 1 death having occurred among all the troops, during the 19 years under review. DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. Under this head are comprised in the preceding Table— Admitted. Died, Proportion of Deaths to Admissions. Inflammation of the Lungs .... Total . , . Annual Ratio per 1000 of Mean Strengtfi 673 55 125 1,200 120 29 16 22 3 56 3 2 2 1 1 in 31 1 18 1 » H 1 „ 400 1 60 1 ,. 14 1 16 2,21S 89 1 in 25 98 3-9 In most of the Medical Reports, the prevalence and fatal character of this class of diseases is strongly commented on, under the impression that, owing to the sudden changes of temperature and violent gusts of wind to which Cape Town is exposed, the troops are more subject to them than in other colonies. We find, however, the reverse of this to be the case, as is shown by the following comparison deduced from this and previous Reports:— Attacked Annually per 1000 of White Troops at each of the following Stations: Windward and Leeward Command. Jamaica. Gibraltar. Malta. Ionian Islands, i Bermuda. a a rt O Nova Scotia and New 1 lininswick. Cape District. 1 By Diseases of Lung-s generally Inflammation of ditto, and] Phthisis Piilmonalis Catarrhs, Acute and Chronic 115 85 141 120 90 126 148 125 35 7 98 30 5 ^ 58 23 12 75 14 13 55 42 6,V 34 6 32 5 37 74 43 6A 86 74 49 89 73 Deaths annually per 1000 of the! Strength from all Diseases of > the Lungs at the same stations J lOrV 5iV 6 S j'lT 7 At 3tV This shows better than any other description of evidence can possibly do, how erroneous is the impression that the climate of this district has any peculiar tendency to excite or aid in the development of pulmonary affections. On the contrary, the aggregate mortality from them is less than in any of the colonies above referred to, and tiie degree of pre- valence is greatly under the average, though, according to the generally received opinions on such subjects, the climate might be supposed much more likely to induce them. This error has probably originated in there being hitherto no_ document whereby a medical officer could compare \he influence of the same diseases in other colonies with