iii
9. It has been usual to exhibit in a second table the incidence of disease
among the several sections of the Native • Army; and this is continued for 1879
in Statement IV annexed.
STATEMENT No. IV
Sickness and Mortality of the Four Sections of the. Native Army.
Regular Army. Central India
Force.
Punjab
Frontier Force. Army of
Bengal. Madras troops.
1878
Admissions per cent. of average strength . 167.3
114.2
236.4
178.08
117.1
Daily sick „
,,
,, .
4.89
3.97
7.16
5.25
4.04
Total deaths per cent. of total strength .
2.53
1.80
2.80
2.52
1.64
1877
Admissions per cent. of average strength . 110.23
90.69
141.08
114.47
90.65
Daily sick „
,,
,,
.
3.39
2.80
4.16
3.49
2.51
Total deaths per cent. of total strength .
1.35
1.05
1.45
1.34
1.27
1876.
Admissions per cent. of average strength
.
142.31
87.41
156.75
140.47
104.87
Daily sick „
, , , , .
3.94
3.01
4.17
3.91
2.59
Total deaths per cent. of total strength .
1.54
.93
1.48
1.47
1.23
1875
Admissions per cent. of average strength . 123.03
91.98
167.24
128.75
89.77
Daily sick
,,
,, ,, .
3.99
2.98
4.63
4.03
2.62
Total deaths per cent. of total strength .
1.56
.96
2.17
1.63
1.42
1874
Admissions per cent. of average strength .
127.71
88.89
172.36 132.97
106.53
Daily sick „
,, ,, .
4.21
3.15
4.75
4.23
3.20
Total deaths per cent. of total strength .
1.34
.92
1.36
1.31
.91
During a period of profound peace such a subdivision of statistics would
not be without a definite aim. The several regiments composing each
portion of the forces serving in Bengal have a sufficiently distinct isolation,
and the results of service may advantageously be compared ; but it is
manifest that on the opening of war any geographical immunities, or pro-
tective economies, at once disappear in the duties of a campaign, more or less
shared by all branches. Regiments of the Regular Army and of the Punjab
Frontier Force are brigaded together and suffer from similar exposure and pri-
v a t i o n . M a d r a s t r o o p s h a v e g a r r i s o n e d s t a t i o n s o n t h e n o r t h - w e s t f r o n t i e r i n
considerable bodies ; while, in the year under review, the Regular Army has not
only crossed the frontier both at Sukkur and Peshawar, but experienced the
vicissitudes of life in a voyage to Malta and the subsequent occupation of
Cyprus. The Central India Force has alone remained stationary, and shows in
the lower rates throughout, the advantages to health of a body of men who are
harassed by no night duties, have no scarcity, nor stint of food, nor any great
vicissitudes of temperature to encounter. It will be obvious that, under so
many variations of duty and station, there can be no accurate comparison made
with previous years from the figures of the remaining sections of the Army.
They all share in the excessive sickness which has been the characteristic of the
year. The figures of the troops in Bengal proper are greatly weighted by the
severe epidemic of malarious fever and its consequences, which shattered the 38th
Native Infantry at Barrack-pore. The statistics of the Madras Troops do not
include any serving on the north-west frontier, but only those which occupied
stations in the Saugor Command ; and both these and the Central India Force
are very favourable in comparison with the other sections.
10. The total number of admissions into hospital in the Native Army from
all causes during 1878 was 99,453, and the daily average number of sick 2936.8;