Military hygiene : a manual of sanitation for soldiers / by R.H. Firth.

  • Firth, R. H. (Robert Hammill), Sir, 1858-1931.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Military hygiene : a manual of sanitation for soldiers / by R.H. Firth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that the requirements for discharge are influenced by the rules or customs of each military service and by the personal equation of each medical officer, the diffi- culties in the vray of taking even this ratio as a standard of comparison between armies or commands are considerable. If we attempt to compare the health of the British army with that of foreign armies, we find that, taking all diseases, the army of the United States heads the list with the enormous admission rate of 1250 per 1000 of strength. After this come the French, German, and Austrian armies, with rates all above 600. Fifth in the list is our own army serving at home, and lowest of all is the Russian army, with the low figure of 325 admissions per 1000. Too much stress must not, how- ever be laid on these figures, as they are to a great extent dependent on the regulations as to out-patient treatment and other service customs, which vary con- siderably in different armies. As regards death-rates, we find, again, that the American army leads with a ratio of 6-14 per 1000 ; the British and French armies come next, with a figure about half that of the above; the lowest of all is the German army, with a ratio of 1-9. These figures also are liable to be affected by the customs of the different services, though less so than the admission rates. The high death-rate (3-2) of the Russian army as compared with its low admission rate ]'»oints to a considerable use of the out-patient system in that army. Taking individual diseases, we find that as regards enteric fever tlie French army suffers by far the most of all the armies of Fnrope, its admission rate of 11*1
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