Chapter III.] MEDICAL HISTORY OF REGIMENTS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF SERVICE.
61
U Under 20, 48 per cent. of all deaths are shown to have been due to it, and 41 per cent.
of all deaths at the age of 21; it contributed one-third of all deaths at the age of 22, and
more than a fourth of the total at the ages of 23 and 24.
In the six years, taking all deaths below 25, the lowest percentage contributed by
Enteric Fever deaths to the total was 28; in 1876, it was 45; in 1873, 39; in 1874, 34; in.
1871, 33; and in 1872, 30.
These figures give no exaggerated picture; on the contrary, we know that the fact is under
-rated in this statement. Under the heads Remittent and Continued Fevers, Apoplexy, Menin
- g i t i s , P n e u m o n i a , P e r i t o n i t i s a n d E n t e r i t i s m a n y d e a t h s a p p e a r , w h i c h w o u l d h a v e a p p e a r e d
as Enteric Fever had the diagnosis been more accurate.
Its nature and natural alliances may be inferred from the various phases in which I have
exhibited the statistics, as related to age, to acclimatisation, to season, and to locality. In a
physiological aspect, the infarction which appears to determine the character and duration of
the fever is one and the same phenomenon, under whatever circumstances the fever may occur.
The cause of the infarction need not necessarily be one and the same. I am prepared to find
in India manifestations of the fever susceptible of different explanations as to their origin; and
the exclusive views now popular in England are not such as commend themselves to the Indian
observer; who, while admitting that the observation of home authorities may be correct, does not
feel himself bound down to the limits which seem to have been prescribed, and is compelled to
conclude that, when so restricted, the mark is overshot and many eases of Enteric Fever
represented as attributable to purely local causes on insufficient grounds.
To complete the table showing the causes of death in the young and unacclimatised, I
append the details of the deaths entered above under the head "All other Diseases."
,
Deaths under 25, entered above under the heading "All other Diseases."
Erysipelas
5
Ulcer of Stomach
1
Pyæmia
2
Peritonitis and Enteritis
21
D i p h t h e r i a
4
Spleen Disease
4
Scarlet Fever (imported)
3
Cirrhosis and Degeneration of
Liver
2
S m a l l p o x
12
Liver
2
H y d r o p h o b i a
3
Rupture of Gall Bladder
1
Syphilis
5
Gastric Tumour
1
S c u r v y
3
K i d n e y D i s e a s e
10
Anæmia
1
Disease of Mastoid Cells
4
T a b e s M e s e n t e r i c a
5
Degeneration of Knee-joint
1
Cancer
7
Caries of Vertebræ
1
Meningitis, Encephalitis
20
Iliac and Psoas Abscess
11
Epilepsy
1
Not ascertained, &c.
3
Tetanus (after injection of quinine)
3
D e l i r i u m T r e m e n s
1
141
P e r i c a r d i t i s
3
Embolism
2
STATISTICS OF FIRST FIVE YEARS OF INDIAN SERVICE.
To make good the loss by death and invaliding, I showed in a former report that in five
years after landing in India, recruits equal to 36 per cent. of
the original strength had been required to maintain the body
of 13,000 men whose statistics were available. Out of a
strength maintained approximately at 13,361, 1,923 died and
2,822 were invalided in five years of Indian Service.
Thirteen regiments which came to India in 1869, 1870, 1871 and 1872 maintained during
the first five years a strength of 11,507. They lost in all 3,086 men, 963 by death and 2,123 by
invaliding. Recruits, equal in number to 27 per cent., were required to keep up these regiments
at the full strength.
The proportion of deaths to invaliding was in the first period 15 to 21; out of the 36
lost, 15 died and 21 were invalided. In the second period, out of a loss of 26.9, 8 . 4 were deaths
and 18 . 5 were men invalided.
The great diminution in the number of deaths from cholera is one of the chief causes
of the improvement in the death-ratio which characterises the statistics of the later years.
Taking the regiments individually, the loss fluctuates greatly. It is determined at one time to
a minimum by favourable location and a succession of healthy
years; and at another to a maximum, by the prevalence of epi
-demic influences, or by the occupation of a bad station, or by
both combined, as very frequently happens.
I need not show the details year by year for these regiments. The tables which follow,
giving the ratios of mortality throughout the course of their Indian service for regiments
which have served out their time, sufficiently illustrate this point.
Aggregating the statistics of the five years, these are the results. The loss varies from
13 to upwards of 30, the good influences of Poona and Ferozepore helping chiefly to deter
- m i n e t h e s m a l l e r r a t i o , a n d t h e e v i l i n f l u e n c e s o f C a w n p o r e , L u c k n o w , a n d P e s h a w a r t h e l a t t e r .
Numbers required to make good
the Loss in Five Years by death and
invaliding.
Loss varies much with circum
-stances and locality. Illustration.
Q