Memories of a long life / by William Campbell Maclean.

  • Maclean, William Campbell, 1811-1898.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memories of a long life / by William Campbell Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the European portion of it oscillated round the enormous figure of 69 per 1000. How stands the case now ? In 1882, the death-rate for all India was only 13'07 per 1000 from all causes. In Bengal for the same year it was 12'07. In Bombay it was only 10'37; and in Madras, for the year 1883 (a cholera year), it was only 10 per 1000. In what I have often here called the ‘ pre-sanitary age ’ I have known one disease—tropical dysentery—kill one in five of those attacked. I have known a regiment with an aver- age strength of 1098 have 2497 admissions into hospital in one year, with 104 deaths—mostly from two diseases, dysentery and its common sequel, tropical abscess of the liver; being nearly ten per cent, of strength. In the same part of India, in the year 1883, out of a force of 13,000 men, with over 500 cases of dysentery, only three proved fatal; and malarial fevers, once so destructive, in the same body of men caused only two deaths. To bring about such an enormous saving of life many factors have contributed. They have all been much insisted on, not only by me, but also by my colleague, the Professor of Hygiene, whose province it is to deal with general health questions. I do not undervalue them—far from it; no one can be more impressed with their immense importance than I am. I am all the more entitled to say so because long before I became connected with this School, I take leave to say, there are few of the ameliorations in the life and surroundings of the British soldier in India, embraced in the comprehensive term ‘ Sanitary Reform,’ that were not urged by me on the attention of the authorities in that country through every channel open to me, and this at a time when advocacy of this kind was not always pleasing to those in power, or calculated to lead to personal advance- ment. After the largest possible allowance has been made for the beneficent operation of the means referred to, a share in the splendid results may reasonably be claimed for the successful treatment of disease. Notwithstanding the great sanitary improvements that have taken place, a