Chapter II.] AGE AND LENGTH OF SERVICE AS AFFECTING THE ARMY IN INDIA.21
Distribution by Age of the Army of India of 1876.
Total Strength. Under 20. 20 to 24. 25 to 29. 30 to 34.
35 to 39. 40 and upwards.
Army of Bengal
36,741
673 11,571 12,308 6,015 4,943 1,231
Army of Madras
11,135
384
3,418 3,205 1,970 1,719
439
Army of Bombay 10,286
128
2,939 3,538 1,871 1,446
3 6 4
Army of India
58,162 1,185 17,928 19,051 9,856 8,108 2,034
TOTAL 100
2
31
33
17
14
3
33
34
It is only in the last four years of the period under review, that the opportunity has been
afforded for tabulating the deaths of the Army in relation to the
length of residence in the country of the men who die.
There are nearly 100 deficiencies in the rolls of 1873-76,
chiefly in those of 1873-74; and deaths from cholera, small-pox and accidents are naturally
excluded in a comparative statement intended to show the relative liability to death of men at
different periods of residence. In the table below, 2,792 deaths are accounted for, and. the re-
- s u l t s a r e a s u n d e r : —
Men resident from 5 to 7 years give the lowest ratio—8.83 per 1,000, which is less by
3.67 per 1,000 than that of the younger class, for which the ratio is 12.50; and the old soldier,
resident above 7 years, has died at the still higher rate of 14.54 per 1,000.
Of the difference of 3.67 between the young and the middle class, 2.64 is made up by the
mortality attending the fevers of the young and unacelimatised: in the acclimatised class the
ratio of mortality for fever of all kinds was 1.10, while among the men resident from 1 to 4
years 3.74 per 1,000 died from fevers, enteric fever contributing 2.77 of this total. Heat
apoplexy, phthisis, dysentery and even hepatitis show a higher ratio in the young than in the
older soldier; and, indeed, except in the case of heart disease, the ratios of the acclimatised class
appear consistently in a favourable aspect. In the class of old men, deaths from fever are
comparatively rare, the liability to die from enteric fever, for example, being 3.87 as contrasted
with 82.44 in the young, and 13.69 in the class resident from 5 to 7 years, reckoning liability
at 100. But in every other respect the tendency is to degeneration, as is shown by the liability
to death doubling, or nearly doubling, in the last column of the table, in the instance of all
diseases which are intensified by the climate of India.
Deaths of the Army of India in
relation to Age and Length of Service
four years,1873-76.
Composition of the Death rate, and
the relative Liability to Death from
different causes in relation to Length
of Indian service.
How 100 deaths are composed at different periods of Indian
service, as deduced from the medical history of the last four
years, is shown below:—
ARMY OF INDIA, 1873-76.
In first four years.
Fifth, sixth, and seventh years.
Above the seventh year.
Enteric fever
22.2 Hepatitis
18.9 Heart disease
16.2
.
Hepatitis
14.0 Apoplexy
11.9 Hepatitis
16.0
.
Apoplexy
11.8 Heart disease
11.2 Dysentery
1 3 . 3
Phthisis
9.0 Dysentery
10.1
.
Apoplexy
10.3
Dysentery
9.0 Phthisis
8.1
.
phthisis
8.2
Other fevers
7.8 Fevers
7.3 Respiratory diseases
6.8
Heart disease
5.8 Suicide
6.1 Fevers
6 . 0
Respiratory diseases 4.4 Respiratory
diseases.
5.9 Suicide
5.2
Suicidal deaths
2.1 Enteric fever
5.2 Enteric fever
.9
.
All other diseases
(excluding cholera,
small-pox, and.
accidents).
13.9 All other diseases 15.3 All other diseases
17.1
TOTAL. 100.0
100.0
100.0
The details, and the ratios of mortality, are placed on the following page. How men young
or new to India, die, will be further illustrated in the succeeding chapter, which gives the
history of men in the early years of their Indian service.
Aggregate Strength of the Army of India at different Periods of Residence, 1873-76.
Army as a body.
1 to 4 years in India.
5 to 7 years in India.
Above 7 years in India.
232.751
119,879
60,890
51,982
F