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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    On the Sickness and Mortality among Troops in the United Kingdom Before a just estimate can be formed of the influence of different climates on the heahh United Kingdom. of troops abroad, it is requisite to ascertain the degree of Sickness and Mortality to whicli they are liable in their native country. In the West India Report, formerly submitted, this was but partially adverted to, and therefore, before entering on a similar course of investigation for the other colonies, it is desirable, for the purpose of comparison, to deter- mine it as accurately as possible. This stage of our investigation, however, presents considerable difficulty, as the Medical Returns, in most instances, include only those who died in regimental hospitals, and seldom notice deaths on furlough, or from accidental causes if not under treatment. Many soldiers too, belonging to corps at home, are sent to Chatham when in bad health with a view to their discharge, whose deaths, if occurring there, do not appear in the Regimental Returns. It thus became necessary to refer to a variety of documents for the purpose of establishing the precise extent of sickness and mortality among the troops in this country. It was requisite, first, to examine the Medical Returns from each corps, in order to ascertain the number of admissions and deaths which took place in the regimental and detachment hospitals, and the diseases by which they were caused; then the Chatham Returns for those who died under treatment there ; and, lastly, the Annual Regimental Returns furnished to the War Office, for the deaths which took place suddenly or on furlough : but as it would have been impossible, without the aid of the last of these, to have arrived at accurate conclusions, this Report is necessarily confined to the seven years subsequent to January 1830, when they were first established. To obtain correct results, however, in regard to the influence of this climate on tlie health of any body of men, it is not only essential that they should have been continuously resident in this kingdom during the period over which the observations extend, but that they should not have been recently serving in stations where their health was hkely to have been dete- riorated, otherwise the effect of disease contracted in another climate might be attributed to that of the United Kingdom. This of course renders it necessary to exclude nearly all the infantry of the line from our calculations, as corps returning from foreign service seldom remain at home longer than four years, and In that period the mortality is likely to be materially influenced by diseases contracted in the climates where they have been serving. The interchange of men between the service companies abroad and depot companies at home also renders the returns of the latter equally unavailable for an investigation of this nature, except where it can be ascertained, as in the case of the West India Depots, that the number who have returned to them is too small to affect the results to any great extent. Owing to these circumstances we have been obliged to confine our observations jn-incipally to those regi- ments of cavalry which have not been serving abroad during the period embraced in this Report, and the Household Troops whose service is for the most part confined to the duties of the metropolis. Had the mortality of these two classes of troops been nearly the same, they might have been included together; but, in proceeding with the investigation, so striking a dispro- portion was «found to exist between the sickness and mortality among the Foot Guards compared with the Household Cavalry quartered in the same metropolis, or even with the other corps of cavalry quartered throughout the kingdom, that it became necessary to keep the calculations for each of these descriptions of force distinct, in order the more readily to ascertain the diseases to which so marked a peculiarity was attributable. This Report is therefore divided into several heads, the first embracing the usual medical and statistical details of the Drag-oon Guards and Drao^oons, the second those of the root Guards only, the third those of the Royal Horse Guards and Life Guards, to which we have appended, for the purpose of comparison, some details regarding the mortality and diseases among the depots of infantry corps serving in the West Indies. In a limited Report of this nature it is impossible to enter as minutely on the subject of barrack and hospital accommodation, diet, duty, and employment, as in the Report on the health of the troops in the West Indies. The accommodation of course varies with the facihties afforded at the different towns or stations in which the troops happen to be quartered. The diet is in some measure dependent on the price of provisions, as the sum which a com- manding officer may direct to be expended for that purpose is by the present regulations restricted to 4#. Id. per week for infantry, and 5s. \d. per week for cavalry;* but it may be The latest warrants direct that As. U\d. per week in infantry, and 5*. 10c?. in cavalry is to be the maximum stoppage for messing and washing; the rate above referred to is for messing alone, as esta- blished by the warrant of 31st December, 1830. B 2