IN SELECTING RECRUITS. 28? 



ing the statistical tables prepared by Mr. Finlayson, 

 it will be seen, that in all classes of society, the rate 

 of mortality suddenly increases from the age of four- 

 teen, when rapid growth may be said to commencej 

 to that of twenty-three, when it is nearly completed. 

 In Paris, for example, the tables for the year 1820 

 exhibit only 395 deaths as occurring between the 

 ages of 10 and 15 ; whereas those between 15 and 

 20 amount to no less than 703, being nearly double 

 while in the five years immediately subsequent they 

 rise to 1339, and afterward begin again to decrease. 

 Viewing these results in connexion with the laws 

 of the animal economy, and bearing in mind that, 

 even in peace, military service implies broken sleep, 

 separation from friends, and occasional exposure to 

 fatigue and privation, we must consider it almost 

 self-evident, that an army composed of young lads 

 belonging to this hazardous period of life must be 

 sickly and inefficient, and that a large portion of the 

 expense and trouble bestowed in enlisting and train- 

 ing them must be entirely thrown away. That such 

 is actually the fact has unfortunately been proved 

 too often by fatal experience. Mr. Marshall, Dep- 

 uty Inspector of Hospitals, in his late excellent 

 work " On the Enlisting, the Discharging, and the 

 Pensioning of Soldiers" adduces an irresistible mass 

 of evidence to show, that till the growth is com- 

 pleted, it is impossible to form any correct estimate 

 of the probable efficiency of a recruit, as numbers 

 of apparently promising young men are cut off by 

 affections of the chest, and other acute diseases, be^ 

 fore attaining maturity, and before being exposed to 

 any unusual privations or fatigue. So literally ac- 

 curate is this statement, that Coche, a high French 

 authority quoted by Mr. Marshall, mentions dis- 

 tinctly, that even in time of peace, when no great 

 hardships are to be encountered, volunteers received 

 into the army at the age of eighteen or twenty pass 

 two, three, or four years of their period of servieS 



