EFFECTS OF SUSPENSION OR DEFICIENCY OF RESPIRATION. 541 



soldiers' wives as regards their accommodation would be the same as that of 

 their husbands, but they would not be subjected to the fatigue and exposure of 

 drill ; on the other hand, their fatigue and exposure during a march would be 

 scarcely inferior to that of the men ; and it was among the women, as among 

 the soldiers, of the 86th Regiment, that the chief mortality occurred, their loss 

 having been 1 in 6, or 166.6 per 1000. Now if we arrange these several divi- 

 sions in a tabular form, we shall see how very closely their respective rates of 

 mortality correspond with the separate or concurrent influence of the different 

 factors here enumerated. 



Thus we see that the highest rate of mortality presents itself where the three 

 causes were in concurrent action ; the absence of mortality, where neither of them 

 was in operation. The difference between the mortality of the Bombay Fusiliers 

 (108.6 per 1000) and that of the 86th Regiment (218 per 1000), which were 

 under precisely the same conditions as regards exposure and ventilation, showed 

 the extraordinary influence of previous exertion ; but that this would not of 

 itself account for the high rate of mortality in the 86th, is shown by the smaller 

 proportion of deaths in the Artillery ; the influence of the same march upon 

 three out of its four battalions, having been in a great degree kept down by the 

 adequate provision for their respiration, so that their mortality was less than 

 that of the 60th Rifles, who had not suffered from previous exertion, but were 

 overcrowded in ill-ventilated barracks. It is scarcely possible to imagine any 

 more satisfactory proof of the preventibility of a large part of this terrible 

 mortality, than is afforded by the analysis of this case j 1 but if any confirmation 

 be required, it is afforded by the case of Bellary, a fortress about 250 miles 

 north-west of Madras. Although by no means unhealthily situated, this station 

 was not free from Cholera for a single year between 1818 and 1844; and violent 

 outbreaks took place occasionally, such as that of 1839, in which the 39th Regi- 

 ment was reduced in five months from 735 men to 645, the number of deaths 

 being 90, or 122 J per 1000. The barrack-accommodation in this fort was ex- 

 tremely insufficient ; and small as it was, it was occasionally encroached upon 

 still further by the introduction of troops upon their march, in addition to the 

 regular garrison. Every such occasion of overcrowding was shortly followed 

 by a large increase in mortality. 3 But since the barrack-accommodation has 

 been improved, the troops quartered at Bellary have ceased to suffer from cholera 

 in any exceptional degree, and the ordinary rate of mortality has been consider- 

 ably diminished. 



580. The only condition of atmosphere which can be compared with that 



1 For a fuller statementof it, see the " Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Rev.," vol. ii. pp. 81-89. 



2 See Mr. Rogers's "Report on Asiatic Cholera in the Regiments of the Madras Army 

 from 1822 to 1844." 



