254 
ON THE LAW OF MORTALITY FOR BRITISH INDIA. 
importance, not only on account of the infor- 
mation they convey, which governs the value 
of annuities dependent on the exigencies of 
human life, hut also as affording data in re- 
gard to the degrees of healthiness of situa- 
tions and the probable duration of human 
life. In the article now before us there is a 
greater number of statements brought for- 
ward, tending to elucidate the rate of morta- 
lity, than in any other treatise we have seen 
on the subject. To the civil and military 
branches of the Hon’ble Company’s service, 
who are doomed to pass the principal period 
of their existence in this country, it becomes 
a subject of great irioment to know the degree 
of mortality to which the British sojourner in 
India is exposed. In a statistical point of 
view the present investigation is of the 
utmost importance, as has been observed 
in another work ; for it is impossible to re- 
gulate with any degree of accuracy the scales 
of pensions without a strict reference to the 
rate of mortality among different classes of 
individuals, both prior and subsequent to their 
being admitted on the pension list. The as- 
certainment of this point is therefore of infi- 
nite importance to the officers of the army. 
No rule either for the promotion of officers or 
for retrenchments against them, can be 
laid down without a previous knowledge of 
the mortality to which they are subject in 
different climates and under different cir- 
cumstances, as regards cantonments and garri- 
sons in India. But there is another question 
yet unsettled, which leads to accurate con- 
clusions ; viz. whether or not India is inimi- 
cal to the health of the children of Europeans, 
and whether it is indispensably necessary to 
send them to Europe in order to preserve and 
establish their health. On analysing the 
paper before us we, however, find that matter 
of so vague a nature has been introduced, 
as to create doubts whether sufficient care 
has been taken to arrive at accurate 
conclusions. Alluding to the natives, for 
instance. Captain Henderson observes that 
there are few tabular statements available, 
or data so extensive as to exhibit the general 
ratio of mortality in India, as compared wnth 
that of the population of other parts of the 
world. So true is this observation, that we 
are rather astonished that our author should 
have referred to the statement of the popula- 
tion, births, marriages, and deaths, in the 
city of Delhi. Writers in Europe might 
notice such statements as being accurate ; 
but we will venture to say they are the very 
reverse. When Captain Henderson alludes to 
the native soldiers, he has however better 
data to go upon. Of these there are regular 
stated returns forwarded to the public depart- 
ments, but much dependance cannot be placed 
on those returns, and on the mode of calculation 
adopted, as to admit of our coming to the 
decision that the conclusions arrived at are 
correct. Captain Henderson says that the 
native soldiers on the Bengal establishment 
are particularly healthy under ordinary cir- 
cumstances. He takes a period of five years, 
and states that only one man is reported to 
have died per annum out of every one hundred 
and thirty-one of the actual strength of the 
army. These tables are taken, we perceive, 
from the returns to the Medical Board. In 
order to prove the accuracy of these data, we 
should like to have seen these returns com- 
pared with those sent to the Adjutant Gene- 
ral’s office. 
We very much doubt the correctness of the 
statement in the third column of table No. 1 
which gives the total strength of regiments 
in monthly averages. Medical men do not 
obtain this item of information so numerically 
correct as conveyed in returns to the adjutant 
general of the army by adjutants of regiments. 
If then the statement is incorrect in this 
column, the result developed in the table must 
be altogether erroneous. We ourselves be- 
lieve the mortality to be much greater than here 
given, which is our reason for objecting to the 
single source from whieh this information 
appears to have been derived. On this account 
the table, which would otherwise have been 
rendered of great importance, becomes in our 
estimation valueless. Capt. Henderson ad- 
verts to the climate, we presume, of Benga^ 
Proper, as being injurious to the sepoy, and 
assures us that, although only one-fourth of 
the troops exhibited are stationedin Bengal, the 
deaths of that fourth are more than a moiety 
of the whole mortality. There are grounds for 
this excess in the number of deaths in Bengal. 
Besides the influence of climate, the bosom of 
a Hindoo soldier is extensively occupied with 
the love of his kindred, his religion, and his 
money ; and the moment he enters Bengal 
Proper, these passions are remarkably develo- 
ped. To provide for his family he deprives him- 
self of the common requisites of life, and, as 
rice is to be purchased at an extremely low 
rate, he lives upon the cheapest; regard- 
less of its quality, he looks only to the 
quantity. Thus he leaves off the use of meal and 
ghee, which he was in the habit of making into 
cakes — the diet to which, in his native land, he 
had been accustomed from his childhood. It 
