Observations on the means of forming and maintaining troops in health in different climates and localities / by Edward Balfour.

Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the means of forming and maintaining troops in health in different climates and localities / by Edward Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    5/12 (page 3)
    riking the average mortality among the troops in Britain. The mortality nong the residents of towns in civil life, and that among the military, who e generally located in the principal towns, so closely approximate, that ; per 1,000 may be fairly received as the average of the civil inhabitants, as . el 1 as of the soldiers employed in Britain. We thus obtain a standard by which to contrast the loss of life in Britain th that to which our armies are subject when serving in foreign countries, and ti observe with regret, from the following Table, that in almost every colony i the empire, the mortality of our troops exceeds the rate they are subject to in eeir native land—in general, immensely so. werage Annual Mortality per 1,000 of Mean Strength of Troops, Natives of the British Isles, serving in Foreign Countries during Peace.* Annual Mortality per 1,000. «w South Wales Marshall 14-1 ifpe of Good Hope Reports, &c - 1818 to 1836 15 5 oDva Scotia and New Brunswick, ditto 1817 to 1836 18* aalta - - ditto 1817 to 1836 18-7 mnada, Upper and Lower - - ditto 1817 to 1836 20* l.braltar - - ditto 1818 to 1836 22-1 i.nian Islands - - ditto 1817 to 1836 28*3 aauritius - - ditto 1818 to 1836 30-5 iirmudas - - ditto 1817 to 1836 32*3 . Helena, British Troops from 1816 to 1822, and 1836 to 1837 3 o' inassenm Provinces Reports, &c. - 1827 to 1836 50* aadras Presidency Quetelet 1826 to 1830 52' )»mbay - ditto - 1826 to 1830 56’ vylon Reports, &c. - 1821 to 1836 57 ”2 ngal Presidency Quetelet 1826 to 1830 63* iindward and Leeward Command, Reports, &c. 1817 to 1836 85’ rmaica - - ditto 1817 to 1836 143* i hamas, a small detachment - ditto 1817 to 1836 200* arra Leone, now withdrawn - ditto 1819 to 1836 483’ Ilf we extend our inquiries on this subject, we shall find the annual decre- nt among the indigenous inhabitants of other countries to be very similar ithat occurring among the natives of the British Isles, when serving like : latter in their native land, and like them, too, increasing when employed (foreign climates. The average annual mortality in the Prussian army,“for ample, from 1821 to 1830, was 11*7 per 1,000 of mean strength, and amono- French troops, from 1820 to 1822 and 1824 to 1826, it averaged 19'8 per 00 of mean strength annually. The Prussian army is composed of anger men than the British, and the deaths among the French troops may isibly include those on foreign service, and thus account for the lower loo of the former, and the higher ratio of the latter. In most countries, however, we find the native residents enjoying a higher ;;ree of health than the foreigners who may be dwelling among them. ,nf°rmation in these Tables has been obtained from Inspector-General Marshall’s ui'bng, an<l trom Col. Tulloch’s Reports on the Health of the British Army. Work on