192 REPORT—1858. 
than all other diseases collectively ; in fact, the excess of deaths from diseases of the 
organs of respiration, is considerably more than double that from all other causes. 
This peculiar feature in the mortality of the army has not been observed in any 
other series of observations, and it is of the utmost importance to determine whether 
the solution of it offered by the Commissioners be the correct one. 
Should their hypothesis be found not in accordance with facts and experience, 
then the most serious consequences must result from it to the sanitary state of the 
army ; as, without the true solution, there is little chance of effectual remedies being 
applied. 
In Tables I. to VI. inclusive, appended, are given the ratio of mortality per cent. 
from all specified causes at the different terms of life; but I shall now refer simply 
to the results for the soldiers’ ages as given in the following abstract of the tables. 
Asstract C. 
Ratio of Deaths from each Cause to the total Deaths from all Causes in the 
following Districts. 
(SoiprErs’ AGEs.) 
England : - 
§ Lanca- Density|Density| Least 
easrieh eee yind | London. | ‘shire. -28--72,/84~99,| Dense. 
Tes dP REHISIS ies cee cogs eco’ meer Nis 7640) 35°2 36°0 | 35°4 | 36°2 | 43°7 
2. Residue of tubercula 
diseases, and diseases : : : f 5 
of the respiratory or- "8 a8 a ace v2 Bes 
ZADS sececcccenccsccsevecee AGS 44°8 46°3 45°6 45°4 52°1 
3. Zymotic diseases ......0. 191 22°6 21°4 | 20°3 | 17°6 | 11°6 
4. Diseases of the nervous 
system and digestive 12°6 12°5 12°5 | 13°5 | 13°3 | 10°7 
y & 
Geer se Ape osrdocockadtc 
5. Sudden and external : ; : ; A eT ik 
CAUSES seeee whom ne 8°2 10°7 | 10°9 | 11-7 | 15°. 
6. Other diseases .......e0e22-| 10°8 11°9 gl 9'7 | 12°0 | 10:3 
7. All causes ....ssecessseeeeee| 100°0 100°0 |100°0 | 100-0 | 100°0 | 100°0 
A careful examination of the results given in this abstract, leads to a conclusion 
quite at variance with the hypothesis of the Commissioners. In fact, in the densest 
districts, the mortality from diseases of the lungs is relatively to the deaths from all 
causes much less than in the more thinly-peopled districts. 
In London the deaths are.........seeee. cccceseccccseecseseseceseee 44°8 per Cent. 
In England and Wales ...........00++ rac cUUnanaenoans ese see enae ia 46°5 ie 
And in the residue of the country, after deducting the di- 
stricts enumerated in Abstract C, .....s.seseeees aa ee: | 2 
It will be seen that the effect of density and overcrowding is not to intensify pul- 
monary disease so much as the class of zymotic diseases. The third line of this 
abstract gives a striking illustration of this ; reading from the last column toward the 
first, it will appear that the relative amount of zymotic diseases to those from all 
causes increases gradually, and almost uniformly, with the ratio of density, from 
11°6 per cent. in the least dense districts to 22°6 per cent. in London, the most closely- 
packed district ; the results for England and Wales, which include all the districts, 
being of course intermediate. The diseases of the nervous system and digestive or- 
gans exhibit a somewhat remarkable uniformity throughout all the groups. 
It is when the results of the mortality in the army are given in the particular form, 
of expression adopted in the preceding abstract, that they appear anomalous, the 
mortality from diseases of the lungs being among the most fatal. 
