The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS.

ED IN BU 'wit, Thursday.
bpyapmerisis" nFtlohreenPcue bxliicghiltineagltahle
an d Departmentreadby was
c o nTthr ufitresdt
S. Jackson.
The paper in the outset referred to the report of the
Royal Commission on the sanitary state of the army in
India, which showed that unless the health of British troops
in India could be improved, and the enormous death-rate
reduced, this country would never be able to hold India with
a British army. The time had not yet arrived for the pres-
sure of the death-rate which that report disclosed to be fully
experienced, because the present large army was compara-
tively new to the country. But unless active measures be
taken by the Indian Government to give effect to the re.
commendations of the commission, it was unhappily certain
that the mortality would increase with the length of service,
and then will be felt the difficulty started by Sir Alexander
Tulloch—viz., of filling up the ranks of those prematurely
slain by preventible diseases from the recruiting depots at
home. In former times, when the Company's troops bore
but a small proportion to the resources (in men) of this
country, the death-rate was not so much felt. The small
army was swept away, and its place supplied, as often as
necessary, from the recruiting offices at home, But now
that a large proportion of the whole British army was sta-
tioned in India, the question whether we should hold or lose
India would depend very much on the steps taken by the
Indian Government. The paper then went on to notice
the death-rate of the troops serving in the country, which
was stated on undoubted authority to be not less than 69 per
1,000 per annum. Wo had been endeavouring to explain
away the obvious result of these figures by showing that the
average was not constant, that in certain years or groups of
years the death-rate was much greater than in others, that
the mortality in the years of excess was due to wars and
other causes, that peace, and not sanitary measures, was
therefore the remedy, and in short that the statement of a
death-rate averaging 69 per 1,000 per annum was not a
fair representation of the case. To this there was
the simple reply that during the present century there had
been an average loss from death alone of 69men out of every
1,000 per annum ; and, while it matters not how the mor-
tality had been distributed, there was every reason to be-
lieve that if things go on as they have done in the present
century we shall go on losing our troops at the rate of 30,
50, 70, 90, or 100 and upwards per 1,000. The death-rate
above indicated was, in fact, understated, for it says nothing
of the invalids sent home from India who die at sea, or
within a short time of their arrival at home, nor of the loss
to the service by destroyed health, nor of the mutiny years.
Assuming the strength of the Indian army at 73,000 Bri-
tish troops, and taking the death-rate at present alone,
without the sickness and invaliding, such an army would
lose on an average of years an entire brigade of 5,037 men
per annum. It might lose some years half that number, but
in other years it would lose two such brigades. It was said
that the death-rate of the war years being the highest (not
from wounds), peace, and not the sanitary measures, was
the remedy. As well might it be said that the British army
having nearly perished before Sebastopol, not from wounds,
but from the want of every supply of civilised life, peace,
and not the supply of the wants of civilised life, was the
remedy. The Royal commissioners had shown that if the
death-rate were reduced to even 20 per 1,000 per annum,
i.e., double that of home stations, since these stations were
improved, to India would be saved a tax equal to £l,OOO
per diem ; and this represents the coat of replacing the men
cut off by excess of premature and preventible mortality.
In speaking of the cause of this high death-rate, Miss
Nightingale referred to the want of attention to climate
on the part of Britons, and to the ordinary system of diet-
ing British soldiers in India, which, she stated, was more
adapted to a cold climate than that of out-doer farm ser-
vants doing work in England. More than that, the
occasional dram at home was commuted by regulation in
India into a permission to drink two drams, i.e., six ounces
of raw spirits each day ; and be it remembered that, at the
same time the men had little or no work to do. The
craving for spirits induced by this regulation habit of tip-
pling leads to increase of drunkenness, so that with over-
eating, over-drinking, and total id.enese, and vice springing
directly from these, the British soldier in India had small
chance indeed of coping with the climate so called. The re-
gulation allowance of raw spirits which a man might obtain
at the canteen was no less than 181 gallons per annum,
which, she believed, was three times the amount per indi-
vidual which had raised Scotland, in the estimation of eco-
nomists, to the rank of being the most spirit-consuming na-
tion in Europe. Of late years malt liquor had been partly
substituted for spirits; but up to the present time every man
if he thought fit, might draw his 1S gallons a year of
spirits besides what he got surreptitiously at the bazaar.
The diseases, however, from which soldiers mainly suffered
were miasmatic, such as foul-air and foul-water diseases,
fevers, dysenteries, &c. The writer then noticed the total
want of drainage and pure water in the Indian stations, and
mentioned, as regards the latter, that there was certainly
not a single barrack in India which was supplied, in our
sense of the term, at all. Water was to be had either from
tanks, into which all the filth on the neighbouring surface
was washed by the rains, or from shallow wells dug in un-
wholesome or doubtful soil. So simple a piece of mechanism
as a pump was unknown. The quantity of water was utterly
insufficient for health, and as to quality the less said about
that the better. There was no reason to hope that any sta-
tion had what in this country would be called a pure water
supply; and at some, it was to be feared, that when men
drank water they drank cholera with it, The overcrowding
in barracks was next referred to, and the principle of build-
ing detached barracks in good situations and well-ventilated
recommended. As to the climate, there was, the winter con-
sidered, not a shadow of proof that India was created to be
the grave of the British:race ; the evidence on the contrary,
was quite in the other direction, and showed that all the cli-
mate required was that men should adapt their social habits
and customs to it, as indeed they must do to the require-
ments of every other climate under heaven. That was a duty
which devolved on men themselves ; the construction of
drains and the finding of a supply of pure water pertained
to the Government. If these improvements, along with
improved agriculture, and agricultural drainage, were
effected, !the normal death-rate of the British soldier would
be (say the commissioners) not 69 per 1,000, but 10 per
1,000. After alluding to the necessity of bringing Euro-
pean civilisation and appliances to bear upon the natives of
India, at the same time that the condition of the natives
was improved, Miss Nightingale concluded by remarking
that the whole question resolved itself into this—how to
create a Public Health Department for India; how to bring
a higher civilization into India. What a work—what a
noble task for an Indian Government I That would, she
said, be creating India anew, For God places His own
power, His own life-giving laws, in the hands of man. He
permits man to create mankind by those laws, even as He
permits man to destroy mankind by neglect of those laws.
Dr. JACKSON next read a paper by the Rev, Dawson
Burns " On the influence of Alcoholic Liquors upon Health,
as illustrated by the experience of the British Army in
India."

it had been ascertained that whereas the
Mr. EDWIN CHADWICK, C. 8., remarked that in-
stancedineaotbne-rateut
p
among the troops in the one station was 44 in 1,000,b the
death-rate of the troops in the same place who had been
upon temperance conditions was reduced to 14
in 1,000.
(Hear, hear.) There was no doubt that by similar ap-
pliances, combined with habits of prudence and sanitary
appliances, the reduction which Miss Nightingale
had
alluded to of 10 in 1,000, or 15 in 1,000, might be expected
to prevail throughout the whole of India.
Dr. NEILsox 11.txcoex. showed that the system of com-
pelling the men not to marry was one of the most prolific
sources of mortality.
Mr. Itawiaxsort, C.E., said that if care were taken to
obtain the beat sites on which to erect barracks, and to have
them placedunder bettersupervisiou—if they got the soldiers
better accommodation, and abolished the spirit rations, they
might place the British army in India, now nearly SO,OOO
strong, in such a position that in place of its mortality show-
ing about GO or 70 per 1,000 it should not exceed 20.
The remaining papers, by Mr. lIoLLANI), M.P., and Mr.
GANGED, referred to the subject of disease in cattle and in-
spection of markets.
Mr. RAWLINSON quite agreed that this question of dis-
eased meat had assumed a national importance, and
tabetaken up by Government. It had fallen
under hi oughts
inspect many slaughterhouses in different parts of
duty
dhe found that the extent of the trade in dig-
Engl3ll-' n most ailing
was apP •
eased cattle
ji (Trade and International Law) Department
In the Sixt
as contributed by the Liverpool Financial
tora
the first
paper
‘B.tion, advocating an increase of direct taxa-
Reform Association,
tion and the repeal of Customs and Excise duties. A paper
.
~,,,ith was also read, condemning indirect
George "-' -- , impolitic, extravagant, and sinfully
by Mr.
i
cc imequai, • r
a utoralising." The following letter
on as
tlxateiril, and extremely -e
read on behalf of the Liverpool
frommm Mr. Cobden
was
thenuested that gentleman's attend-
Association, which had req
once at this congress :

" Midhuret, Oct. 3.
"Dear Sir,--As I shall not be ilionEcodiAnhssuoregihataiotnt,hiet ap-
proaching Preaching meeting of the Social
i.ez he my powere tode
demerits
tpsaorft
le be in
t and indirect taxation.
for t
evil direct and
discussion respect_
ttisoanYad:l:till,, because it is really little more than a ques-
tion
oitrtminginthwohnicehceswsiety;sohf
; but, ad given sum o
money
no argument in the abstract arlalistionl;aate a neceosaryf
elPEnses of Government, there can really be
4'
Why it should not be raised in