ON ETHNO-CLIMATOLOGY. 141 



18-87, 37-33, 45-46, and 43-17; and in Madras, from 1829 to 1851, from 

 27-11,27-63, 48, and 62-31. 



Tliere has been an increase of mortality of natives to cases treated, in 

 Madras, of 7'26 per cent.; in Bengal the mortality is about the same; and 

 a decrease of 3 per cent, in Madras. 



With phthisis (consumption) the percentage of mortality to a given 

 strength is^r 



In Bengal 11 deaths of Europeans to 1 Native. 



Bombay 4 „ „ 1 „ 



Thus, the deaths of Europeans from phthisis even exceed the native pri- 

 soners in our Indian jails. 



In the various other diseases which have not been mentioned, the 

 mortality is far higher, being, in Bengal, as 3 Europeans to 1 native, and in 

 Bombay as 3-2 Europeans to 1 native. 



Many Avriters have observed that, with the natives, those most free from 

 disease are those who toil all day in the burning sun, with no covering at all 

 on the head. Ignorance as to the difference of race has induced some 

 commanders to attempt thus to harden the Europeans, with results some- 

 thing frightful to contemplate. 



One of the regiments that had been the longest in India, the Madras 

 Fusileers, is stated to have been reduced from eight iiundred and fifty to 

 one hundred and ninety fit for duty. M^ny similar cases have been pro- 

 duced by needless exposure. Mr. Jeffreys says, " that Her Majesty's 41th 

 Regiment in 1823 were nine hundred strong, and a very fine body of men. 

 The commanding officer insisted that confinement of the men during the 

 day was effeminate, and continued drilling them after the hot season had 

 begun. But the men suffered the penalty of the officer's ignorance. For 

 some months," says Mr. Jeffreys, " not less than one-third, and for some 

 weeks one-half, of the men were in hospital at once, chiefly witli fever, 

 dysentery, and cholera. I remember to have seen, for some time, from five 

 to ten bodies in the dead-room of a morning, many of them specimens of 

 athletes." Experience has shown that it is not tiie absolute exposure to 

 the sun from which Europeans suffer; it is the subsequent effects which are 

 to be dreaded. On a march, the European will appear to be equal to the 

 thick-skinned native; but he soon learns that such is not tiie case. 



The European soldier is also unfitted to stand the effects of a cold climate 

 after some years' residence in India, and dreads to return home to encounter 

 tiie cold and hardships of English peasant-life. With officers, who can 

 return to enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of civilization, the case is dif- 

 ferent. The few soldiers who remairj in India have more or less chronic 

 diseases, which, says Mr. Jeffreys, " would render the attainment of any- 

 thing like longevity out of the question." 



Seventy-seven per cent, of the European troops in Bengal are under thirty, 

 twenty-three per cent, above that age; or ninety-four per cent, are under 

 thirty-five, the remaining six above that age. 



From Dr. Ewart* we learn that the European army has hitherto disap- 

 peared in Bengal in about ten and a half years; in Bombay, in thirteen and 

 a half; in Madras, in seventeen and a half; or in all India, in about thirteen 

 and a half years. We find the percentage of deaths to strength amongst 

 European regiments, in Bengal, 6-94; in Bombay, 5-52; in Madras, 3-88. 



Thus we find that, on adding all these diseases of European troops together, 

 we get a mortality of at least seven per cent, for the whole of India, while 



* A Digest of the Vital Statistics of the European and Native Armies in India. By Joseph 

 Ewait, M.D., Bengal Med. Staff. . 



