Hygiene & diseases of warm climates.

  • Davidson, Andrew, 1836-1918.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene & diseases of warm climates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    27/1102 (page 7)
    lu 1878 the death-rate of soldiers' children under 1 year in India was 314 per 1000, while in London it was 185.^ Viewing the mortahty in relation to the birth-rate, we find that in England about 15 per cent, of all infants born die within the first year of Kfe. There is but little evidence as regards children in India in this particular, but the followmg may be quoted from the Calcutta Review of 1851: Taking the returns of two regiments which reached India last year, we find that in one there have been born 44 children, of whom at the end of the fifteenth month there are only 29 surviving, showing a loss of 27 per cent, within the first year. In another regiment 52 children have been born within 14 months, of whom 32 have died within the same period, giving a ratio of mortahty equal to 33 per cent, during the first twelve months of their Indian hfe. In another case, taking the children born in England or on board ship who arrived with the regiment in India eight years ago, out of 15 9 (the original number) no less than 110 have perished. Of the remaining 49, how few in all probabihty will grow to manhood! Hence we see that whether we take 100 cliildren imported from England, born of healthy parents, or 100 children born of the same parents witliin the first year of their arrival in India, still the melancholy fact remains the same. The same writer quotes the followmg table, exhibiting the respective ages of the survivors of 261 children born in one regiment since landing in India eight years previously:— From 7 to 8 years, 6 „ 7 5 „ 6 4 „ 5 3 „ 4 2 3 Under 2 4 8 13 15 20 15 38 Died, 148; survivors, 113. Total in 8 years, 261. It may be true that the management of soldiers' children is bad; but have we any approach in India to the want, privation, and exposure to which multitudes of the children of the poor in London are subjected ? Surely not. T \'^a death-rate of soldiers' children in India has declined very considerably since 1878. i , , ^^^ death-rate of chHdreu under 1 year was 189-64. This very marked decrease is the result of circumstances which add weight to the author's reasoning ana conclusions. Tliey are-(l) short service in the country ; (2) rapid means of transit to xne mils, and a larger proportion of men quartered there ; (3) liouses established in the hills lor ine reception of children ; (4) the larger number of married families sent to the hills sohli^ - 1 •^'^ diminished mortality is the result of withdrawing cliildren from the tropical influences which prove so injurious, and rearing them in a temperate climate.—Editou.