Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding, among the troops in Western Africa, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius / prepared from the records [by A.M. Tulloch, H. Marshall, and T.G. Balfour] of the Army Medical Department and War Office returns.

  • Great Britain. Army Medical Services.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, & invaliding, among the troops in Western Africa, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius / prepared from the records [by A.M. Tulloch, H. Marshall, and T.G. Balfour] of the Army Medical Department and War Office returns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Invaliding, Table^Vll I. Showing the Ratio discharged annually as unfit for Active Service of White Troops in the Mau¬ ritius. 18 c STATISTICAL REPORT on the SICKNESS, MORTALITY, and West Coasi of Africa. Honduras. Bahamas. Jamaica. Mauritius. and Leeward Command. Gibraltar. Died annually per 1000 ofl Mean Strength by Diseases > ®T0 % o Sr>, 1 9 9 16ft 33ft of the Lungs . . • .J Thus in his native country the negro appears to softer from these diseases in much the same proportion as British troops in their native country, but so soon as he goes beyond it, the mortality increases till, in some Colonies, it at tains to such a height as seemingly to pre¬ clude the possibility of his race ever forming a healthy or increasing population. It is in vain that we look for the cause of this remarkable difference, either in tempera¬ ture, moisture, or any of those appreciable atmospheric agencies, by which the human frame is likely to be affected in some climates more than in others, and it is consequently impossible, from any other data than that which the experience of medical records furnishes, j to say where this class of troops can be employed with advantage. Nearly two-thirds of I the mortality from diseases of the lungs among negroes, arises from pulmonary consump¬ tion ; and it is worthy of remark, as showing how little that disease affects the natives of some tropical climates, though it proves so fatal to those of others, that among 71,850 native troops serving in the Madras Presidency, the deaths by every description of disease ! of the lungs did not, on the average of five years, exceed 1 per thousand of the strength annually. Though accustomed from infancy to a high temperature and constant exposure, the Black Pioneers suffer more from hepatic disease than the White Troops, natives of a northern climate, the mortality being relatively as 5r7(7 to 4 per thousand of the strength. The admissions are certainly not so numerous among the former, but as generally happens in Colonial corps, many of the milder cases undergo native treatment without the patient coming into hospital. As the negro does not suffer to any extent from diseases of the liver, ( either on his native coast or in the West Indies, notwithstanding the high temperature, his liability in the Mauritius seems to arise from some peculiar tendency in the climate to induce them, lor which no satisfactory theory has yet been advanced. Diseases of the stomach and bowels are not half so frequent or so tktal among the black troops as the white, indeed, they do not suffer more from them than when serving on the coast of their native continent. Even that proportion, however, is a sufficiently formidable item in the mortality, and one which in itself would prove a serious obstacle to the increase of any population equally subject to it. Here, as in the West Indies, rheumatic affec¬ tions are nearly twice as common as among the white troops. The other classes of diseases do not seem to require any specific notice. SECTION II. flood! Piift 1 -o/fi > « ri* On the Extent of Invaliding among the Troops serving in the Mauritius. Prior to 1825 the White Troops invalided from this Command were classed along with those from Ceylon, and we have no means of separating them to show the relative proportio i from each, but the following Table will supply tLie necessary details subsequent to that, period :— Years. Mean Strength of Troops. Discharged totally unfit for further Service. Found fit for Garri-ou Dot) only. Total of both Classes. Ratio per 1000 of Mean Strength Invalided of both Classes. 1 Number j found fit for furl her Service and seat to tneir Depots or Corps. j 1825 1,131 34 ♦ • 34 30 • • j 1826 1,338 81 • • 81 60 1 1827 1,692 31 2 33 20 11 | 1828 1,639 61 4 65 40 8 1829 1,650 9 13 22 13 15 I 1830 1,(06 14 21 35 22 4 1831 1,777 33 7 40 23 8 1832 1,861 4 1 5 3 . . | 1833 2,228 21 • • 21 10 6 j 1S34 2,20! 12 3 15 7 2 1835 1,934 32 7 39 20 12 1S36 1,555 8 2 10 7 • • Total . 20,612 340 60 400 19 5 67 Those stated to be fit lor garrison duty only have been included here, because, no regiments being now kept up solely for garrison duty, there is just as little likelihood of the services of these men being again available to the public as if they had been discharged as totally unfit, and they are equally entitled to pension.