142 REPORT — 1861. 



with the native troops the mortality does not amount to a half per cent. 

 Sir A. TuUocIi says, that " the total loss from all causes has been at least 

 seventy per thousand ;" and that " the proportion invalided annually may be 

 taken at about twenty-five per thousand more, and twcnty-five per thousand 

 to men not renewing their engagements ;" making altogether twelve per 

 cent., or one hundred and twenly per thousand. He further observes, that 

 the number of recruits raised during peace, from 184-5 to 1849 inclusive, 

 was less than twelve thousand ; and that, with a force of eighty thousand in 

 India, we shall require nine thousand and six hundred of them for India, 

 " unless," as he observes, " means can be adopted to reduce mortality and 



invaliding." 



Mr. Jeffreys says, the mortality of troops in India amounts to ten per 

 cent. He observes, " The casualties amongst the troops have, during peace, 

 amounted per annum to at least one thousand in every ten thousand; in 

 England and her healthy colonies they have ranged from about ninety to a 

 little above two hundred." Such being the undisputed fact, there is no 

 doubt, as Sir A. Tulloch has observed, that " the selection of healthier 

 stations for our troops than those they have hitherto occupied is no longer 

 a matter of choice, but one of necessity, as we cannot hope to keep up the 

 lart^e European army required to hold India without the strictest attention 

 to "this important measure." The late Sir H. Lawrence devoted much of 

 his life to the solution of this question in a practical manner. I'here is no 

 doubt that removing our military stations to the hills is a measure demanding 

 serious attention. Sir Ranald Martin is of opinion that, in Bengal and 

 the N.W. Provinces, the malaria might be escaped by an elevation of from 

 two thousand five hundred to four thousand feet. That this would be ad- 

 vantao-eous is quite probable ; but we shall not find in the hills the same 

 climare we have in this country. We may escape the influence of malaria- 

 diseases, just as we escape the yellow fever in the West Indies, at an eleva- 

 tion of from two to three thousand feet. The Report for the Re-organization 

 of the Indian Army gives the mortality from 1815 to 1855, exclusive of 

 casualties, at a hundred thousand men, " the greater portion of whose lives," 

 the Report says, " might have been preserved had better localities been 

 selected for the military occupation of that country." But are there any 

 places even in the hills in which Europeans can be reared without gradually 

 becomino- degenerated? This is a serious question, to which science can as 

 yet five no positive reply. Looking at the wisdom which is displayed in 

 the general distribution of mankind, we shall be inclined to answer in the 

 negative. It has been presumed that, because yellow fever is in a great 

 measure escaped in Jamaica at an elevation of about two thousand five 

 hundred feet, this elevation would be sufficient to escape malarious dis- 

 eases in other parts of the world ; but such is not the case. If we ascend 

 to any great height, we often get out of the region of malaria, and into the 

 region of bowel-diseases. It is also affirmed* that " intermittent fever origi- 

 nates in some of the Himalayah stations. At Aboo also, during the malarious 

 months, ague is very prevalent. Dr. Cooke (Bombay service), in his annual 

 report of the Khelat agency, states that ' Khelat, the highest inhabited spot 

 of the Beloochistan table-land, standing seven thousand feet above the level 

 of the sea, is also malarious.'" 



It has also been said by Sir John Lawrence, Brigadier-General Chamber- 

 lain, and Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards, that, besides our soldiers not liking 

 to live in the hills, the natives have not the power of believing in what they 



* Diseases of India. By Dr. Moore, Bombay Medical Service, and in charge of the Sani- 

 tarium for European troops at Mount Aboo. 1861,p. 48. • 



A 



