The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-25 00:00:00

Sanitary State of the Indian Army.

The report of the commission appointed to inquire into
the sanitary state of the army serving in India has just
been published by the War-office. The inquiry has been
one of unusual extent and duration, and from its very na-
ture has led to considerable delay in the collection and
arrrangement of the information supplied, The commis-
sioners had, in the first place, to lay the foundation for their
investigations by a careful examination of the statistical
and sanitary documents in the India-house, and, in the
next place, to take an enormous mass of oral evidence, but,
beyond this, they found it be necessary for the attainment
of the object which they had in view to institute a prelimi-
minary inquiry by means of printed questions at all the In-
dian stations. In addition to these causes of delay there
were others which operated in the commission itself. As
originally composed at the date of its appointment, May 31,
1859, it consisted of the following members :—The Right
Hon. Sidney Herbert, chairman—Major-General Sir R. J.
H. Vivian, K.C.B.—Colonel Sir P. T, Cautley, K.C.B
Dr Alexander, C. 8., late Director-General of the Army
, Medical Department—Colonel E. H. Greathead, C.B.—Dr
W. Farr, Mr J. R. Martin, and Dr Sutherland. The
official duties of the chairman, and, unkappily, his
declining health frequently rendered it necessary that
the meetings of the commission should be post-
poned, while its proceedings were interrupted, also, by
the resignation of Sir R. Vivian, whose services
were required elsewhere, and by the death of Mr Alexan-
der. To supply their places Dr. Gibson, the present Direc-
tor General of the Army Medical Department, and Colonel
Durand were nominated members of the commission, and
Lord Stanley succeeded Lord Herbert as chairman. Under
his auspices the inquiry was brought to a close in the spring
of last year, and the result is now before the world in an
elaborate report and two volumes of evidence. Besides,
appended to the report itself is given a summary of the evi•
dence, an abstract of all the reports from the stations in
India, and a valuable paper of comments upon them written
at the request of the commission by Miss Nightingale.
Among those who contributed to furnish the information
thus carefully compiled are the present Governor-General
of India, Sir J. Lawrence, Sir C. Trevelyan, Sir A. M,
Tulloch, Colonel Durand, Colonel W. Thompson, Commis-
sary-General, Bengal ; Brigadier-General Russell, Dr.
Bird, late Physician-General to the Bombay Army—Dr W,
C. Maclean, Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals—Maj.-
Gen. Cotton, Madras Engineers, and several others whose
acquaintance with the soldier's life in India was from the
nature of their position while in that country necessarily of
a most intimate character. Before proceeding to take oral
evidence, however, the attention of the commissioners was
naturally directed to ascertain from what authentic docu-
ments these facts upon which the whole of their subsequent
investigations were based. The rate of the mortality pre-
vailing in india, especially in the army, was therefore the
first point to which they addressed themselves, and under
this head is to be found some of the most interesting in-
formation in their report.
The English population in India amounted, according to
the returns made by the several governments in 1861, to
only 125,945 persons ; so that this vast Eastern empire is
held in subjection by a mere handful of Europeans, which,
as the commissioners observe, is lees than the population of
the parish of Marylebone. Of these 125,945 people, 84,083
went to compose the British officers and men of our Indian
armp ; while 22,556 consisted of men and boys in civil life,
including the civilians in the public service ; the remaining
19,306 being females, of whom 9,773 were over 20 years of
age. Taking in the first place the English children in India
it is found that the rate of mortality among them is lower
than that which generally prevails among children at home;
but then as they advance in years they grow feeble, and
gradually wither away. This remark does not, however,
apply to children reared on the Hills, as is shown by the
experience of the Lawrence Asylum at Sunnawnr, which
contains 500 children, of whom a native chief on one occa•
sion observed that they looked like lions' cubs, and who
appear to possess all the vigour of children reared
on English soil. When the census was taken
the number of females of English origin in India
above the ago of 15 was 11,636, including 8,356 wives
and 1,146 widows. Of the officers and men of the
Royal army 93 per cent. of all ages were unmarried, while
the proportion of civilians above the age of 20 unmarried
amounted to 50 per cent. The mortality among the wives
of officers the commissioners regard as a fair representa-
tion of the mortality under ordinarily favourable circum-
stances of English women in India, and this has been ascer-
tained not to exceed 14 in 1,000 between the ages of 20 and
40. The wives of the non-commissioned offieers and sol-
diers do not fare so well, as the provision made for their
accommodation is inadequate, and in that class of life the
women—including the Eurasians, or half-castes, whose
number is very considerable—die at the rate of 35 per 1,00).
Among the civil servants in India between the ages of 20
and 45—and they may be looked upon as affording the most
favourable illustration of the duration of life among the
adult male population of English origin in that country--
the average rate of mortality per 1,000 has been found to be
little more than 20, the rate being between 14 and 18 in the
case of Madras. In England the mortality among men of
the same age is on an average about 9 per 1,000. The mor-
tality among the natives of all ages in India, it may be
added, as far as can be ascertained, amounted to 51 in every
1,000, while in this country the latest returns showed the
number of deaths per 1,000 to be under 23,

We come now to deal with the army in India, the con-
stitution of which it was the special object of the commis-
sion to investigate. According to the returns published in
April, 1862, when some of the changes resulting from the
incorporation of the Indian with the Queen's troops had
been carried.into effect, that army numbered nearly 200,000
—the returns were not quite complete,—of which number
3,9j2 were European officers and 70,489 European non-
commissioned officers and men ; the native officers
and men amounting to 103,332, exclusive of 11,652 men in
the Punjab local force. The distribution of these troops
was as follows ;-88,000, in round numbers, in Bengal, the
North-West Provinces, and the Punjab, 42,000 in the
Bombay Presidency, and 54,000 in Madras. Over the pro-
vince of Peg% too, a few thousand soldiers were scattered.
To the Europeans in this large army the experience of the
past proves service in India to be extremely trying. The
average mortality cf men of the soldier's age in the healthy
parts of England and Wales is such that 8 die annually out
of 1,000 living, while in the unhealthiest towns and in the
unhealrh est trades the number of deaths in 1,000 is not
more than 12. In the British army at home the mortality,
which was 17 per 1,000, is now declining in proportion as
well ascertained causes of disease are abolished or mitigated.
In India, however, a different state of things exists. There
the death-rate of the English soldier has ranged from 41, at
which point it stood in 1852, to 134 per 1,000, which was the
mortality in 1504. Fluctuating during a long series of years
between those two extremes, the average mortality has been
struck by the commissioners at 69 per 1,000; so that,
taking the average mortality of men in England at
the soldier's age at 9, it would seem that 60 in every 1,000
die annually in India owing to the special causes there in
operation; the numbers slain in battle being few compared
with those who fall victims to the more deadly agency of
disease.

To determine the rate of mortality among the British
troops in India of different ages as well as of different terms
of service, the returns for the 10 years ending 1856 have
been used. From these it is found that the mortality per
1,000 between the ages of 20 and 25 is 56.4 ; between 25 and
30, 48.8, when it gradually rises till between the ages of 40
and 45 it reaches 61.6. After the age of 55 the deaths grow
less, and at 70 and upwards old men die nearly at the same
rate in India as in England. From these rates of mortality
a life table has been constructed from which the mean dura-
tion of life, as well as the value of the annuities dependent
on soldier's lives in India, can be deduced. By this table
it will be seen that the mean after-lifetime, or expectation of
life, as it is sometimes termed, at the age of 20 in India is
171 years, while it is 39.5 years in England ; so that
life is shortened by more than 21 years by residence in
the former country. The after-lifetime at the age of
40 is 15 years in accordance with the Indian, 26 in
accordance with the English table. We must not fail
to observe that while the mortality of the soldier in
India has been at the rate of 69 per 1,000, that of the officers
has been only 38, and a fair deduction from this coin-
parision would appear to be that the 31 deaths in excess
in the case of the former are due to other causes than the
climate, to the influence of which officers as well as men are
everywhere exposed. To illustrate the extent to which the
insalubrity of India has been proved to affect civilians,
officers, and soldiers, the case of four armies, each consisting
of 33,615 young mea of the age of 19, may be taken. The
first army remaining in England, and experiencing the or-
dinary rate of mortality, would lose in the first year 251
men, '276 in the second, 281 in the third, and so on, until at
the expiration of 11 years it would be reduced to 30,453 men
of the age of 30. The second army, proceeding on the
same calculation. would also lose in the first year 254, and
if then landed in India, and suffering a loss only equal to
that of the Madras civil servants, it would in 11 years be
reduced to 28,916 men ; while the third army, landing in
India after the first year, and experiencing the same rate
of mortality as the military officers, would be reduced to
24,610 in 11 years ; and the fourth, in the same period,
to 19,617, the death-rate being that which has hitherto
been found to prevail in the case of the common soldier. If
in such contrasts as are thus presented there be much to
regret, it must not be forgotten that the elements of hope
are not wanting ; for it is evident that the great mortality
among the mass of the troops is not the inevitable result of
Indian sun. It is clearly attributable to other causes than
the nature of the climate. While the soldiers live together
in numbers in common bed-rooms in barracks, the officers
generally reside in separate bungalows; their food and
drink are of superior quality; their contact with the sick in
barracks is limited to periodical inspections, and when ill
they have the advantage of being able to resort to healthy
places. Similar causes operate in favour of the civil ser-
vants, the mortality among whom, as has been already
stated, does not exceed 20 in 1,000 at the soldier's ego, and