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.

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    Cape of Good Hope. Sickness and Mor- tality of Officers. Table XI. Showinsc the Mor- tality and principal Diseases among Officers serving in the Cape of Good Hope Command. The deaths reported during that period were— From Diseases after specified 14 „ „ not known 1 At home, or on the passage, from diseases] ^ contracted at the Cape J From Suicide 1 Shot in a Duel 1 Drowned 3 Total ... 23 Making the ratio of mortality 14 per thousand of the strength annually, even including accidental deaths, in no way attributable to climate, a sufficient evidence certainly of the general salubrity of the Colony. The extent of sickness will also be found extremely low, but owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the number under treatment at the smaller detachments on the frontiers, several omissions maj^ probably have taken place, for which it Avill be necessary to make some al- lowance in any comparison with the sickness of the troops. The diseases, so far as can be ascertained from the Medical Returns, will be found in the Abstract before referred to, of which the principal results are exhibited in the followinor Table:- ^ ^ 1822 to 1836 inchisivo, Aggregate Strength 1631 ! Annual Ratio udmitted into 1 Hospital Annual Ratio , treated per CLASSES OF DISEASES. 1000 of Mean j per 1000 of , Troops, as on p. 7. Numbers Treated. Numbers Died. 1 Strength of j Officers. Diseases of the Lungs. „ Liver . „ Stomach 1 & Bowels J „ Brain . Rheumatic Affections . Venereal „ 83 108 26 167 14 2 C7 73 3 3 1 5 50 65 16 101 9 1 41 45 88 98 22 126 10 2 64 210 Abscesses and Ulcers. Wounds and Injuries . Diseases of the Eyes . „ Skin . All other Diseases. 70 116 16 7 47 1 1 42 70 10 4 28 lis 126 32 14 46 Other cases before specified 9 Punish e»l 35 Total . . 796 23 482 991 We have here compared the prevalence of the same diseases among the officers and the troops, for the purpose of shewing, that if allowance is made for cases on the frontier, which may have been omitted among the former, and for which probably 10 per cent, should have been added, there is no great disproportion in the influence of the principal diseases on either rank, though in the less important ones, such as venereal, ulcers, diseases of the eyes, &c., the reverse is the case. So many of the fatal diseases among the officers are unknown, that it is impossible to bring tiiera into comparison with those of the troops without the risk of erroneous con- clusions, and we shall therefore not pursue our enquiries on this subject farther at pi*esent. SECTION VI. On the injluence of the Seasons in producing Sickness and Mortality among the Troops serving in the Cape of Good Hope Command. Influence of the In Abstract No. VI. of Appendix, is submitted a statement of the admissions and deaths in Seasons. g^^jj month from 1822 to 1834, being the only years for which this portion of the inform- ation can be made available, because during the disturbances on the frontier when the Colonial militia were in the field, that force was sometimes included in the same returng with the troops of the line.