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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    Mauritius. Mortality, &c. of Officers. Table XIR. Showing the Mor¬ tality and principal Diseases among Officers serving in the Mauritius. SECTION V. On the Sickness and Mortality among the Officers serving in the Mauritius. The salubrious character which, in the course of these observations, has been assigned to the climate of the Mauritius, will be found amply confirmed in this stage of our investigation. By the War Office Returns the number of officers in ihe Command (staff included) averaged, from 1818 to 1836, about 90, and the aggregate strength during that period was . 1702 Of whom there died, from the diseases after specified ..... 14 By diseases not known.3 At home, or on the passage, of disease contracted in the Mauritius . 4 At the Cape of Good Hope, supposed from same cause .... 1 Drowned ... . 3 Total.. 25 Making the ratio of mortality about 15 p£r thousand annually, even including the accidental deaths which, having occurred from shipwreck, must be left out of view in all conclusions as to the influence of climate. The extreme rarity of deaths among officers in this Colony has long been a subject of remark, indeed the proportion from disease is as low as in the United Kingdom, a sufficient proof that, though within the tropics, the climate of this island, like that of St. Helena, does not of itself exercise any decidedly unfavourable influence on the health of Europeans. This fact is established also by the limited number of officers who came under treatment, for various diseases, in the course of these 19 years, as enumerated in No. Yl. of Appendix, of which the results are exhibited in the following Table:— 1818 to 1836 inclusive, Annual Ratio Annual Ratio Aggregate Strength 1,702. treated per 1000 of Mean treated per 1000 of Mean Strength Number Treated. Number Died. Strength in Mauritius. at the Cape of Good Hope. * ‘ By Fevers. 88 2 52 50 Diseases of the Lungs . 81 3 47 65 ,, Liver . 42 3 25 16 ,, Stomach and Bowels 173 2 102 101 ,, Brain . 13 3 8 9 Dropsies. » • • • • • 1 Bheumatic Affections . 51 • • 30 41 Venereal ,, . Abscesses and Ulcers . 80 • • 47 45 92 • • 54 42 Wounds and Injuries . 65 1 38 70 Diseases of the Eyes . 8 • • 5 10 ,, Skin 2 • • 1 4 All other Diseases . . 36 • • 21 28 Other Causes before specified • • 11 • • • • Total . • « 731 25 430 482 Thus the number treated is even smaller than at the Cape, in the proportion of 430 to 482. Some slight cases may no doubt have been omitted, as the diseases of officers are not reported with the same regularity as those of the privates, and it is even probable that in some of the years no report was received of those who came under treatment at the out-stations. As the same source of error, however, applies with equal force to those at the Cape it will not ma¬ terially affect the comparison. It will be observed that notwithstanding the remarkable prevalence of diseases of the stomach and bowels among the troops, no such feature is manifested among the officers at the Mauritius, the proportion treated being almost exactly the same as at the Cape. There is a slight excess in diseases of the liver, but the results in regard to all the other classes are very nearly alike.