194 RESULTS OF AN ENQUIRY RESPECTING THE 



as to the real ratio of decrement in their immediate communities ; yet from 

 the regular constitution of the public covenanted services at large under 

 each Government, there vv^ere greater facilities for obtaining scrupulous 

 accuracy in India, in every thing relating to the periods of arrival, the 

 ages, and dates of death, of the Company's Civil and Military Services, 

 than can be found perhaps in any other country or scattered community. 



The enquiry may commence with the common soldiery among whom 

 the greatest mortality necessarily shews itself, from their habits, greater 

 exposure, and the absence of much of the comfort and protection enjoyed 

 by the higher classes. But it is scarcely needful to remark here that in 

 the present paper there has been essayed no investigation into the causes 

 of mortality, nor has any enquiry been instituted except into mere results 

 and figured statements, called for to assist the Committee in calculating 

 the correct value and expectation of life under the various circumstances 

 of European residence in India. It would appear from a mihtary work, 

 published in England in 1832, on enlisting, discharging, and the pensioning 

 of soldiers, by Mr. H. Marshall, Deputy Inspector General of Army Hos- 

 pitals His Majesty's Service, that our Inspector General, Dr. Burke, has 

 stated, that coming to India at the mature age of 24 or 26 is the most 

 favorable to health in the soldier, and we beg to call attention to a state- 

 ment* furnished by the latter officer in confirmation of his opinion. By 

 it we learn that in 1824, a Regiment employed in Ava, experienced a ratio 

 of mortality among the young men who went out with the corps, to the 

 extent of 38 per cent., or 1 in every 2^, while among the Volunteers from 

 other Regiments, who were considerably older, the mortality was 17 per 

 cent, or 1 in 6. In 1825, (still on service in Ava) it was 305 per cent, or 

 1 in 3J among the former or younger class, and only 6 per cent, or 1 in 

 16 in the latter or older. 



* Vide Table No. 4. 



