274 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



I 



nition of consumption and improved precautions 

 against its spread played a part. On the other hand, 

 it may be argued that the air conditions of the worst 

 barracks would have furnished a more evil record 

 were it not for the fact that the men occupied, in 

 rotation, barrack rooms with diversities of cubic space 

 and ventilation. 



In 1875 Dr. Farr found that the death-rate in the 

 London garrison of the Guards was 20.4 per 1000 of 

 strength. The rate was not more than 3 per 1000 

 just before the war. The fact that in the same barracks 

 the men are now better spaced and the rooms better 

 ventilated is known to have contributed largely to 

 these happy results. Hear what the great Edmund 

 Parkes (a man whom all hygienists hold in the 

 greatest reverence) has to say in this connection: 



"With very different duties, a variable amount of 

 syphilis, and altered diet, a great amount of phthisis 

 has prevailed in the most varied stations of the army, 

 and in the most beautiful climates: in Gibraltar, 

 Malta, Ionia, Jamaica, Trinidad, Bermuda, &c., in 

 all which places the only common condition was the 

 vitiated atmosphere which our barrack system every- 

 where produced. And, as if to clench the argument, 

 there has been of late years a most decided decline of 

 phthisical cases in these stations, while the only cir- 

 cumstance which has notably changed in the time 

 has been the condition of the air." 



The experience of the navy is very similar to that 

 of the army, although it is less accentuated. The 

 invaliding rate from consumption during 1900 to 1910 

 shows in comparison with that of 1860 to 1870 a drop 

 of 18 per cent. This is ascribed to the better spacing 

 and placing of cabins, and the better ventilation pro- 

 vided since the early 'seventies. Prior to 1870, diseases 

 pf the respiratory organs were the most prolific source 



