Report on epidemic cholera in the Army of the United States, during the year 1866 / War Department, Surgeon General's Office.

Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on epidemic cholera in the Army of the United States, during the year 1866 / War Department, Surgeon General's Office. 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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    Finally, the latest appearance of cholera during the year was in a party of recruits who left New York for San Francisco, November 20th. On the 16th of December cholera appeared, the vessel then being on the San Juan river. On the 20th the command reached La Virgin, on Lake Nicaragua, about twelve miles from the Pacific ; went into camp and established a hospital. Altogether there were 54 cases and 27 deaths during the month. The foregoing brief statement will serve to give a summary view of the progress of cholera through the army. The reports reproduced in Appendix B will furnish many interesting details. Appendix A, presents a brief statistical synopsis for each post, for the total white troops at infected points, the total colored troops, and a general summary embracing, so far as the reports permit, all the troops exposed. In preparing these statistical tables, the reports used for each post embrace the month during which cholera appeared, and all subsequent months for which reports were received, to December 1866, inclusive. The reports are believed to be very nearly complete; blanks subsequent to the appearance of cholera being generally due to change of station, or, in the case of colored troops, to the muster-out of the command. The only important deficiency is in the case of the October reports for certain stations in Texas, which have been indicated in the tables by an appropriate foot-note. This deficiency, however, does not probably represent any very considerable number of cases. The mean strengths given in the summaries for white and colored troops, and in the general summary, only represent the troops embraced in the reports, and have nothing to do with the strength of that part of the army not exposed to the epidemic. It appears from these tables that out of a total mean strength of 12,780 men, there were 2,708 cases of cholera reported, and 1,207 deaths. Of these there were 1,749 cases and 706 deaths out of a mean strength of 9,083 white troops; and 959 cases and 501 deaths out of a mean strength of 3,697 colored troops. Besides these, there were 4 cases and 3 deaths of white, and 12 cases and 7 deaths of colored soldiers at various isolated points, as set forth in the table VI, Appendix A, making a total of 2,724 cases and 1,217 deaths of cholera for the six months. In the following considerations no count has been made of these last 16 cases, which have been ignored in order that the ratios presented might have a definite relation to strength. The three summary tables here presented show the prevalence of sickness and mortality among the troops exposed to the epidemic, expressed in the ratio of cases and deaths per 1,000 of mean strength, for cholera, diarrhoea] diseases, and all other diseases, for each month, and for the six months. From these