FRESH AIR AND EFFICIENCY 273 



dition generally described as "catarrh", as the most 

 sensitive index, if the facts of its prevalence were 

 available. This is, of course, not the case, and so 

 we must take consumption and see whether the facts 

 of its prevalence and of the mortality it caused in the 

 British army on home service (as disclosed in the 

 reports of the medical department on the health of the 

 army) bear any relationship to the soldier's fresh-air 

 ration. Unfortunately, in the earlier years to which 

 I shall refer, there were changes in the nomenclature 

 of the diseases of the respiratory tract which make 

 a strict comparison with later years impossible; but, 

 allowing for this, the following conclusions are amply 

 justified by the statistical records: Certainly from 

 1818 to 1846 there was but a very slight decrease in 

 the mortality from diseases of the lungs; from 1850 

 to 1860 a decrease was rather more evident; but from 

 1860 to 1869 an enormous decline took place. Yet 

 from 1866 to 1869 the admissions to hospitals from 

 phthisis and haemoptysis in the home army still slightly 

 exceeded 10 per 1000, but from 1900 to 1910 such 

 admissions had fallen 62 per cent; and in 1880 the 

 consumption death-rate of the army was 75 per cent 

 less than the pre-Crimean rate. This was "mainly 

 the result of the improved condition of ventilation in 

 the soldier's sleeping-rooms, which had been gradu- 

 ally effected since 1858" (De Chaumont, 1883). In 

 the 'sixties the death-rate from consumption in the 

 army was over 30 per cent higher than among male 

 civilians of army age; while in recent years it has 

 dropped considerably below the civilian rate. 



Of course this striking reduction of consumption in 

 the home army cannot be wholly ascribed to improved 

 air conditions in barrack rooms; for during the long 

 period under review certain improvements in clothing 

 and feeding were introduced, and the earlier recog- 



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