A letter to the Right Honourable the Secretary at War, on sickness and mortality in the West Indies : being a review of Captain Tulloch's statistical report / by Sir Andrew Halliday.
- Halliday, Andrew, Sir, 1781-1839.
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable the Secretary at War, on sickness and mortality in the West Indies : being a review of Captain Tulloch's statistical report / by Sir Andrew Halliday. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![Wished* than that in some of the islands and stations for the troops the average mortality is much greater than in others, and, therefore, that the whole command may be divided into what are called healthy and unhealthy sta- tions ; and that, however much casual circumstances, or atmospheric changes, may for a time alter the character of any one particular island, or military post, yet such alteration is only temporary, while complaints of a specific class will always prevail universally in the permanently unhealthy islands. My opinion had been formed long before I ever saw the West Indies, or had any intention of visiting these colonies; yet I felt not the less anxious that it should be confirmed, or otherwise refuted, by data that should be free from all bias, and that must carry with them a perfect degree of conviction, one way or the other. I investigated the Returns for a great number of years,—followed the movements, and noted the casual- ties of several regiments, during the whole of their stay in the windward and leeward command,—and it appeared even to me rather surprising, how uniformly all the returns I examined supported each other, and how satis- factorily they proved these great leading facts, namely, that the more frequently a regiment has been moved from one island to another, or from one station to another, in the same island or colony, during its residence within the command, the fewer men it has lost; and that the most stationary corps have always lost the greatest number of men. I shall only intrude upon your Lordship with the history of two or three regiments. Commencing with ] 824, I took the 27tli, 35th, and 93rd regiments. I found that during this year the 27th regiment had arrived in the command, after a three years’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28521286_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
