LAW OF MORTALITY, FOR BRITISH INDIA. 



193 



of the decrement of the population at large ; the very best periods only 

 of life, (generally speaking from 20 to 45) are received in the statement 

 which gives these results ; the Sepoys are healthily employed, well clothed 

 and attended, while many unrecorded deaths occur at their own homes, 

 where, as a last resource, bad cases are allowed to proceed on medical 

 certificate. It would seem by other documents* that out of about eighteen 

 thousand invalid fighting men, of the Bengal Army pensioned by the State, 

 six hundred and eighty deceased during the year 1831-32, or one out of 26^; 

 while the average duration of the pension enjoyed by this class of men for 

 a period embracing from May 1828 to October 1830, was 7 years 8^ months, 

 and from May 1831 to the same month in 1832, the duration of pension 

 was only about 5 years 4^ months. 



It is to be regretted we are in possession of so little other information 

 regarding natives. In common circumstances we may presume there is a 

 tolerably uniform rate of mortality in most situations ; but, perhaps, in no 

 climate is there less tenaciousness of life in times of pestilence or famine 

 than among the too delicate mass of our native population, and more par- 

 ticularly in Bengal Proper. The vast number that perish under these 

 calamities, or under visitations of Providence, such as the late inundations, 

 would defy all calculation or attempt at tabular exhibition. In the statis- 

 tics of British India it is still, however, a grand desideratum, — the possession 

 of an accurate census of the large populous cities, with regularly published 

 annual statements of the births, marriages and deaths, and all other infor- 

 mation on this important point. 



The Committee was able to afford more accurate and extensive infor- 

 mation of the rate of mortality of Europeans frequenting this country, 

 and although the ever-fluctuating character of the Calcutta European 

 population, or that of the other seats of Government, left them in uncertainty 



* Vide Tables Nos. 2 and 3. 

 3 A 



