202 



RESULTS OF AN ENQUIRY RESPECTING THE 



have demised 3.36 per cent, while as many as 31 more, (or 0.73 percent) 

 have been drowned ; this mode of death having occasioned nearly one-sixth 

 of the entire mortality. On the examination of the Tables of the Pilot 

 Establishment which have been compiled in the Master Attendant's Office, 

 under orders of the Marine Board, several curious circumstances have 

 come to view. Presuming them to be correct, we find their rate of decre- 

 ment, generally speaking, does not exceed that of the Officers of the Army, 

 but the periods of service and the ages of the deceased are much less than 

 those of the Europeans elsewhere exhibited. Thus while the Branch Pilots 

 or seniors whose time of life corresponds with that of Field Officers, have 

 demised at the percentage of 4.46 per annum, the extreme age of the oldest 

 has been 47 only, the mean age being 44 of all who died. The oldest 

 Pilot on the list had only served thirty years, the mean of servitude 

 for the whole casualties being only twenty-three years. Thirty-two Mas- 

 ters have died in thirty years, the percentage being 4.30, their mean age 

 at the time of death being thirty-six, after a mean of service of seventeen 

 years. The deaths in the First Mates (the most exposed class probably) 

 have been heaviest of any, or 5 per cent. : their mean age was 28, and their 

 period of service ten years. The Second Mates deceased only at half that 

 rate, their mean age being 28 also, their service eight years. Among the 

 Volunteers, the casualties by drowning are twenty, while the natural deaths 

 are only fifty, the total percentage per annum being 4.10, the mean age 

 of the deceased of this rank was 22, and their average periods of service 

 three and a half years. 



The Committee received separate Returns of the decrements among 

 the Officers of His Majesty's Regiments stationed respectively at Bengal, 

 Madras and Bombay.* At the first mentioned place the decrements 

 on the whole are found to be 3.37 per cent, per annum ; at Madras 3.55, 



* Vide Tables Nos. 15, 16, and 17. 



