464 



MEDICINE AND MEDICAL STATISTICS. 



[Sect. XIV. 



whfcii it wiil be generally furnished. For the sake of 

 system it will be necess'"-y to add an additional column 

 to the sick list, in which to state the number of days each 

 case was under treatment. 



:\dding these together at 



the close of the year, and dividing the aggregate sum by 



the mean numerical strensftl 



o-^^h 



will of course give the 



proportional number of days' sickness per man for the 



The relative proportion of sickness, with respect 



year. 



to diiferent diseases, mav also be ascertained. 



T' 



a 



additional trouble (if indeed I 

 which these details would L 



expose 



id be BO -considered) 

 divided aiuongst so 



many, would not be great, while the facihties they would 



5 and the correctness they w^ould insure in the com- 

 pilation of the general details for the v/hole service, would 



be of the utmost importance. 



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^ 



There is still anoth(T object which would add greatly 

 to the interest and value of tlie vital and medical statistics 

 of the navy, and this cannot be effected at head-quarters 

 unless by the employment of an extensive staff of clerks 

 namely, to class the whole of a ship's company by their 

 ages into decennial periods, beginning at fifteen and termi- 



fifty-five, in order to ascertain the relative 

 degrees of sickness and mortality in each of these stages 

 of life. By a propt. arrangement of these and the pre- 



ceding data, in tabular 



r* 



forms, the relative amount of 



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sickness at certain ages, and from every, or, at all events, 

 from the most important diseases, might be deduced, and 

 the relative deg • 3 of health enjoyed not only in different 

 squadrons, but in different ships, ascertained by a single 

 glfsnce, and with a degree of accuracy which it is impos- 

 £'He to arrive at by the present system. 



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