Remarks on the mortality among the troops serving in the United Kingdom from consumption / by Robert Lawson.
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on the mortality among the troops serving in the United Kingdom from consumption / by Robert Lawson. 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.
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![Remarks on the Mortality among the Troops Serving in the United Kingdom from Consumption. By Robert Lawson, Esq., LL.D., Inspector-General of Hospitals, [Read before the Statistical Society, 18th January, 1887. Sir Rawson W. Rawson, K.C.M.G., C.B., a Past President, in the Chair.] The mortality in the Army from diseases of tlie lungs, chiefly consumption, has long attracted attention, but it was not until the statistical reports on the health of the troops and those of the Registrar-General for the civil population of England and Wales were published, that the materials became available for even an approximate estimate of its relative amount. In tbe first report on the mortality among the troops in tbe United Kingdom, drawn up by the late Sir A. Tulloch, which appeared in 18311, it was estimated that the ratio per i,ooo of deaths among the civil population was only half that among the troops; and in the report for the period 1837-46, prepared by Sir A. Tulloch and Dr. Balfour, and published in 1853, the following appears on p. 32 with reference thereto:— “ The preceding results would seem to justify the inference “ that there must be some peculiarity in the condition of the “ soldier, or connected with his profession, to which civilians are “ not exposed. What influence aggregation in masses, crowded “ barracks, night duty, and exposure on guard, may exercise, we are “ unable to determine; but the subject is one deserving careful “ investigation.” During the thirty years which have elapsed since this was written, various authors have given their attention to the subject, and have advanced theories regarding it which they considered borne out by the facts at their disposal. The additional informa- tion which has accumulated, with this efflux of time, may now be employed to test how far the more prominent of these theories represent the efficient causes of the greater prevalence of the disease among the troops. A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21969887_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
