The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-04 00:00:00

HEALTH OP THE NAVY.

The annual volume on the heath the Royal navy has
.eT3:pteeh
this
es
sliw,so
tfla 0
was—dea.
followed close upon the volume relating to the army, but
does not contain the facts for thesameyear, the returns for
the navy having been completed only for 1859. The total
8110e0rfOiro,ouslu died. rseideullUenteni
sickness
ne
rowneayst 3,l3B,every
head,
totalb e
hi
force.nogw
mean force afloat in that year was 52,825, and average loss
ra°pthieortastle,
that 1,994 men, 37.7 per 1,000, were invalided ; 886, 16.7
sev9
crease upon
.
in China and an eruption offever in .two
yellow. vessels on
the coast of Africa. The mortality from disease was 11.8
per 1,000 ; from wounds, injuries, accident, and drowning,
4.9 per 1,000. Only 93 deaths were from wounds received
in action ; a larger number, . _ lO4, were drowned ; but the
army of diseases carried off 624. Of the invaliding also,
amounting to 37•7 per 1,000 •
in all, 30.5 per 1,000 were for
disease, and only 7.2 for -
wounds, injuries, and hernia. On
the East India and China
Peiho forts,the mortality station,o with the attack on the
from wounds,injuries, and drown-
ing was only 17.5 per 1,000 on; force,
. and from disease
31'2 per 1,000 ; and of the invaliding,m4os were
for disease, and only 150 for woundsanindalimisss2
them for gun-shot wounds received in „tie.,:.urTiehse;
mllo4rtao-f
lity on the home station was as high in 1859 as 9.7 per
1,000, and the loss by inefficiency through sickness averaged
50.2 per 1,000. Of the foreign stations the East India and
China is the most unhealthy for Europeans ; upon an aver-
age 94'6 per 1,000 were constantly inefficient, and the mor-
tality from disease was 31'2 per 1,000 ; even excluding the
deaths from malignant cholera, which occurred only among
men who exposed to the specific infecting poison in places
where it existed, the mortality was 29.2 per I,ooo—a mor-
tality chiefly due to the southern division of the Chinese
territory. The African coast ranks next in unhealthiness;
631 men per 1000 were always inefficient through sickness,
131 (82'4 per 1,000) were invalided, and the loss by death
from disease amounted to 84 men, or in the ratio of 52.8
per 1,000. But this unusual and enormous mortality is be-
yond the normal death-rate from all ordinary and climatorial
diseases common to the whole line of coast; three-fourths
of the deaths occurred in two ships from yellow fever, and,
deducting these deaths with the view of showing the influ-
ence of the climate upon European life, the ratio of mor-
tality from disease is reduced to 12.6, which, nevertheless,
exceeds the death-rate from all ordinary and climatorial
disease on every other station with the exception of the
India and China station. On the Brazilian station the deaths
were but 10 per 1,000, and on the Pacific 9.8, and excluding
the deaths from yellow fever contracted by communicating
with the infected ports of Rio de Janeiro and Panama, the
ratios are reduced to 4 and 8 per 1,000 ; the climate in both
these regions is still as healthy as it was before yellow fever
and cholera were introduced into them. There is no place
in the world where Europeans are more exempt from the
ordinary constitutional and climatic diseases than on the
coast of Brazil. Yellow fever is infectious, not indigenous;
and with reference to its origin, the axiom " places, not
persons," has been, by experience, reversed to " persons,
not places." The West India climate, provided common
prudence be observed, is by no means so unhealthy as gene-
rally supposed ; the mortality in 1859 was on a par with that
of the home station. Unfortunately there can be no ac-
count of the health of the navy without some reference to
the loss of service through disease caused by immorality; in
the year 1859 it made inefficient above 10 per 1,000 of the
entire force at home and abroad, constantly, upon an average
depriving the country of the services of 542 men, or remov-
ing from the effective strength of the navy the entire crew
of a 50-gun frigate. To mention a single instance—in the
James Watt, in the course of eight months, 121 eases were
placed on the sick list, nearly all from disease contracted at
Plymouth ,and Devonport. Portsmouth and Plymouth