LAW OF MORTALITY, FOR BRITISH INDIA. 203 



and at Bombay 3.28. These results would seem to keep pace with the 

 deaths in the Company's Army, but there is reason to believe that there are 

 some discrepancies in the Returns of the strength of His Majesty's Officers, 

 and that many are included (such as Officers with Depots in Europe and 

 others) who are not exposed to an Indian climate, and whose appearance 

 therefore in the Table would tend to vitiate the correct ratio of mortality 

 throughout. In the Table furnished by Dr. Burke for the last four years, 

 the percentage has been 4.12 per annum, and in Returns originally sent to 

 the Committee by the Adjutant General of His Majesty's Troops,* the 

 percentage was as high as 5.40 for the last twenty years. In explanation 

 of this apparent excess the Adjutant General has justly observed that 

 King's Regiments come " to India bodily, the Officers being of different 

 ages from 16 to 50," and the twenty years shewn in the Tables being those 

 of peace in Europe, Subalterns " are from 30 to 50 years of age, while in 

 time of war their age would scarcely exceed 25." In explanation also of 

 there being more deaths among His Majesty's Officers than those of the 

 Hon'ble Company, the Adjutant General states the fact of all the Bengal 

 Regiments having been sent to Ava, while few Hon'ble Company's 

 Troops were employed from Bengal. He also observes that Europeans 

 always compose the heads of columns in attacks of fortified places 

 and consequently are the greatest sufferers. The whole of these reasons 

 are sufficient to explain why there should seem a greater ratio of mortality 

 with His Majesty's Regiments, but it is to be remarked, that the casual- 

 ties in action are much less in either service than is generally presumed. In 

 Bengal, out of two hundred and eighty-four deaths in His Majesty's 

 Regiments, only fourteen, in those Returns, appear to have been killed 

 in action, or about one in every twenty of those whose deaths are reported ; 



* In the Original Returns, out of an average of 261.20 lives yearly exposed to the climate, 

 the decrements were 14.15 per annum. The corrected Returns, it is believed, contain the 

 Depot Companies and others in Europe. 



