356 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



native troops in Bombay are as healthy as the British troops 

 are in England. These comparisons will be found to be con- 

 firmed in all the other colonies. 



Perhaps the most striking result exhibited by the tables 

 or diagrams is the great amount of mortality among the 

 military as compared with the naval service, or with the civil 

 population of a country. When it is remembered that the 

 former are selected with a special view to health, while the 

 latter are taken promiscuously, an opposite result might 

 have been anticipated. In Britain the number of deaths 

 among the troops, generally, is 15 per 1000, while among 

 officers and the civil population it is only 9 per 1000. In 

 France the returns of the army of the interior show a mor- 

 tality of 18 per 1000, while among the civilians it is 10 per 

 1000 ; and this is exceeded in all the colonies. In the island 

 of Barbadoes the mortality among civilians is not more than 

 14 per 1000, while among European troops it is 58 per 1000. 

 As compared with the mortality in the navy the crews in 

 the Mediterranean, South American, and Home Station, are 

 all greatly more healthy than any European troops, the 

 average mortality being 9 per 1000. In the East Indian 

 command the average is 15 per 1000, corresponding with 

 that of the troops in Britain. In the West Indian and North 

 American command it is 18 per 1000, being the same as 

 among the British troops at Malta, and in the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and West Africa command, where the mortality among 

 the troops is 450 per 1000, or 45 per cent., in the navy it is 

 only 25 per 1000, or 2^ per cent. 



The effect of the means adopted for checking disease in 

 the three great countries of England, France, and Germany, 

 during the past century, are such that while formerly one out 

 of every 30 of the population died each year, now the average 

 is one in 45 — reducing by one-half the number of deaths in 

 these countries. In the year 1700 one out of every 25 of 

 the population died in each year in England. In 1801 the 

 proportion was one in 35, in 1811 one in 38, and in 1848 one 

 in 45, so that the chances of life have in England nearly 

 doubled within 80 years. In the middle of last century the 

 rate for Paris was one in 25, now it is one in 32. 



