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

HEALTH OP THE NAVY.

year, notwithstanding
---41.
The annual volume on the health of the Royal navy has
followed close upon the volume relating to the army, but
does not contain the facts for the same year, the returns for
that 1,994 men, 37.7
the navy having been completed only for 1859. The total
mean force afloat in that year was 52,825, and average loss
ipc.
in
eraca
action
ii
onuonaop
;oa; upon
af
drt
lohaamernge reruption precedingwounds,nu m bei
onr yf:i
of men from sickness was 3,138, being 59.3 per I,ooo—a
most serious reduction on the total force. The result was
wawcfece rivdeeern itu,drownedatnwdo dvhr:oossbwst
ueinll
tisi hostilities
per 1,000, died. Under every head, however, this is a do-
per 1,000, were invalided ; 886, 161
4.9 per 1,000. Only
the coast of Africa. The mortality from disease was 11.8
93 deaths were from wounds received
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 '
i
disease, and only 7.2 for '
wounds, njuries, and hernia. On
the East India and China station'attack with the
Peiho forts,the mortality from wenn uries,and
drown-
ing the
ds,inj
was only 17.5 per 1,000 of mean force, and from disease
31.2 per 1,000 ; and of the invaliding, in all 555, 405 were
for disease, and only 150 for wounds and injuries; 114 of
them for gun-shot wounds received in action. The morta-
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 91.6 per 1,000 were constantly inefficient, and the mor-
tality from disease was 31.2 per 1,080 ; 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 291 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 1819 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 cases were
Placed on the sick list, nearly all from disease contracted at
, 13IYaleaa and Pevoport, Portsmouth and r
1 VA 911
t 4