Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding among the troops in the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean, and British America; prepared from the records of the Army Medical Department and War-Office returns. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty / [Signed: Alex. M. Tulloch].

  • Great Britain. War Office.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding among the troops in the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean, and British America; prepared from the records of the Army Medical Department and War-Office returns. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty / [Signed: Alex. M. Tulloch]. 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.

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    1 The diseases by which the sickness and mortality have been occasioned, in each of these Commands, are detailed in Abstracts Nos. XVII., XVIIL, and XIX. of Appendix, from which we have condensed the following Table, to exhibit the results in a comprehensive form;— Aggregate Strength , Of these .... By Fevers Eruptive Fevers . Diseases of the Liuigs „ Liver. „ Stomach 1 and Bowels . . .J Epidemic Cholera, Diseases of the Brain . Dropsies .... Rheumatic Affections . Venereal „ Abscesses and Ulcers . Wounds and Injuries . Diseases of the Eyes . ,, Skin . All other Diseases. On Sick Leave, and \ Causes Unknown . j Total . . Gibraltar. 2511 Attacked. Died 265 4 325 47 310 2 10 3 148 241 205 190 37 10 145 Malta. 1772 Attacked. Died 145 1 184 53 229 14 4 63 267 67 94 25 5 55 Ionian Islands.| Ratio per 1000 of Mean Strength Attacked Annually. 2506 Attacked; Died, 755 4 303 44 600 20 7 120 235 182 149 24 10 114 10 3 In Gibraltar.! In Malta, 8 10 106 1 129 19 123 1 4 1 59 96 82 75 15 4 58 82 104 30 129 8 2 36 151 37 53 14 3 31 1942 34 1206 In Ionian I Islands. 1 302 121 17 239 8 3 48 94 73 59 10 4 46 30 \\ 2567 44 r73 6S0 1024 There were admitted annually per 1000 of the Troops for this class And per 1000 of the Officers annually In Gibraltar. 111 Malta. In the Ionian Islands. 186 123 155 129 156 237 Mediterranean Stations, Table XXVI. Showing the Mor- tality and Principal Diseases among Officers serving in the Mediterranean. Though the admissions are sufficiently numerous to form a fair basis for determining the rehitive prevalence of each of these classes of diseases among officers and privates, or to compare with those of officers at otlier stations, the deaths have been so few, and the causes of so many unknown, owing to their having occurred beyond the limits of tliese Commands, that no calculations deduced from them could be made available for any useful purpose. In Gibraltar, for instance, though the climate has proved so exceedingly inimical to consumptive patients, yet on referring to the abstract of diseases among the officers, we do not find one case of plithisis recorded, though there is good reason to believe that most of the deaths of which the causes are unknown arose from that disease. The Medical Reports explain this peculiarity by stating that, owing to the prejudicial influence of that climate on pulmonary patients, any officer in whom symptoms of consumption begin to manifest themselves, is immediately sent from the Rock. In comparing the diseases of the officers and privates, it is necessary to direct attention to the relative influence of those of the Stomach and Bowels. Thus, while in Malta the ratio in both ranks is nearly the same, and in the Ionian Islands is much higher among the officers, the reverse is the case in Gibraltar, aud that in a very, marked degree. This corroborates what was previously stated at page 12 of this Report, that affections of the stomach and bowels are by no means common at Gibraltar, except among the troops ; and consequently that their prevalence may arise more from the large quantity of salt provisions issued there than from climatorial influence. The remarkable exemption of the officers from ocular disease, so common among the troops in Gibraltar and Malta, is the only other peculiarity to which we think it necessary to call attention. At Gibraltar the proportion attacked of the troops was 97, and at Malta 102 per thousand, whilst of the officers only 14 or 15 per thousand were attacked annually at each of these stations; in the Ionian Islands the relative proportion is not so striking, being as 40 to 10. We are led to infer from these results, either that the nature of the soldier's duties in the Mediterranean particularly exposes him to this kind of disease, or that it has been in many instances artificially excited.