SECTION III. Mean Daily Sick. The average number constantly sick among the European troops was, in South China 283, and in North China 205, and among the native troops 146 China. and 14 respectively. These numbers give the following results : This shows the proportion constantly non-effective from sickness among the European troops to have been much lower in the North than the South of China, but the average duration of the cases of sickness to have been nearly the same in each. The inefficiency from sickness among the Asiatic troops was also less in the North than the South, but the duration of disease was about a day and a half longer in the former. SECTION IV. On the Influence of Age on the Mortality. Abstract No. XXIII. of Appendix shows the numbers serving and the deaths at each age, in quinquennial periods, in such of the European regiments as served in China during the whole of the year. For obvious reasons those corps which were in the Command during a portion of the year only are omitted. The ratio of deaths per 1,000 serving at each period of life was as follows: It will be seen from this Table that there is a considerable rise in the mortality in the period 25-29. The numbers under 20 and above 34 are too limited to ensure average results. Indeed, the numbers altogether are so limited as to forbid our drawing any positive deductions on the subject of the influence of age in this climate. No Returns were forwarded of the ages of the Asiatic troops. ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. XII. ON THE HEALTH OF THE TROOPS SERVING IN INDIA. India. Section I. Sickness and Mortality. In consequence of the annual returns from the Bengal Presidency being still in arrear, the information respecting the sickness and mortality in it has necessarily been compiled from the quarterly returns. health of the troops in Madras and Bombay have, however, been prepared The Reports upon the from the annual returns, which were received in time to be available for the purpose. The average strength of the European troops, exclusive of those of the late Hon. East India Company, was, as shown by these Returns, 57,082; the admissions into hospital among them amounted to 102,353, and the deaths to 2,002. But there were, in addition, 95 deaths among invalids on their passage home, or at the Invalid Depots shortly after their arrival in England, which increase the total mortality to 2,097. These numbers give the proportion of 1,768 admissions, and 36·74 deaths, per 1,000 of mean strength. The following Table shows the relative sickness and mortality in each of the Presidencies : These ratios show a decrease in the admissions into hospital in all the Presidencies, but less marked in Bengal than the others. There is also a reduction in the mortality of the troops in Madras and Bombay, but an increase in Bengal. The diseases by which the sickness and mortality were caused are detailed in Abstract No. XXIV. of Appendix, from which the following Table has been prepared: : Died. Admitted. Died. On comparing this with the corresponding Table in the Report for 1860, it will be found that the decrease in the admissions in all the Presidencies was chiefly in miasmatic diseases and those of the digestive system. In Bengal there is a marked increase in the mortality by miasmatic diseases, and a slight increase in that by diseases of the digestive system; but in Madras there is a decrease in the ratio by both these classes, and in Bombay by miasmatic diseases. The increase in Bengal was caused by an epidemic of cholera which raged with great severity in the third quarter of the year. Exclusive of the deaths by it, the ratio of mortality amounted only to 22 per 1,000 of the strength. MIASMATIC DISEASES.-The chief groups comprised under this heading have occasioned the following amount of sickness and mortality in each of the Presidencies: Eruptive Fevers. Influenza 222 17,436 32 7 74 1,369 7,778 86 1,248 29 5.9 85 6 6 4,175 174652 1.97 127.5 .45 09 3.3 56471.2 192 7 1,231 82075 2.29 1162 65 138 9 .90 2,957 198 1,584 26 1,501 50 78.9 5 28 147 52 42169 4 5.64 Admitted. Died. Admitted. Died. Ophthalmia Paroxysmal Fevers.-Compared with the amount in 1860 there has been a reduction to the extent of one-half in Madras, and one-fourth in Bombay, while in Bengal there has been no change. The mortality by this group of diseases, however, has been lower than in the preceding year in all three Presidencies. Continued Fevers have been less prevalent in all the Presidencies, and less fatal in Madras and Bombay, but particularly in the latter. In Bengal the ratio of deaths has been very slightly above that of 1860. Dysentery and Diarrhea have undergone a very marked diminution in their prevalence in Bengal, but without any corresponding change in mortality; in Madras, also, there has been a reduction in these diseases, while in Bombay the admissions have been nearly the same, and the deaths a little higher than in the preceding year. Spasmodic Cholera has been the cause of a high rate of mortality in Bengal, the deaths having amounted to 23:48 per 1,000 of the strength, or more than half of the total mortality in that Presidency. In Madras there was a slight reduction, and in Bombay a very considerable one in the deaths by this disease. The proportion of deaths to cases was 1 in 1.55, being rather higher than in the preceding year, when it was 1 in 1.82. TUBERCULAR DISEASES have given rise to a lower ratio of mortality in Madras than in 1860. In the other Presidencies the results correspond very closely in the two years. As noticed in last Report, a large proportion, amounting in the present instance to one-fourth of the deaths by these diseases, occurred among the invalids after they had left India. SUNSTROKE, or heat apoplexy, has been recorded as the cause of thirty-five admissions and nine deaths. In 1860 it gave rise to thirty-eight admissions and twenty-two deaths. The reduction in the mortality has been most marked in Bombay. ACCIDENTS, VIOLENCE, &c.-Under this class three cases of poisoning are STATISTICAL REPORT FOR 1861. recorded in Madras, and ten in Bombay, none of which proved fatal. No India. information has been given in the Reports concerning the cases in Madras.* Three in Bombay occurred in a detachment of the 56th Regiment quartered at Surat. Ten of the men had gone to a date grove near the town where they had partaken freely of toddy, and were almost immediately afterwards attacked with the symptoms of poisoning, and strong suspicions were entertained that some irritant poison had been administered to them. After a careful inquiry, however, it was believed that the symptoms had been produced by the toddy having been mixed with a quantity of the juice which had been drawn only a day or two previously. The men all recovered. The other diseases do not seem to require special remark. In accordance with the plan adopted in last Report we shall now submit certain details respecting the sickness and mortality in each of the Presidencies separately. I. BENGAL. The following Table show the amount of sickness and mortality at the Bengal principal stations in the Bengal Presidency : Ratio per Average Admitted Died 1,000 in Died. 2,315 30.14 Barrackpore 621 1,172 27 1,887 43 48 Presidency.. Dum Dum 228 435 9 1,908 39 47 Raneegunge 148 273 10 1,845 67 57 Hazareebaugh 939 2,242 12 2,395 12 82 Dinapore 620 1,148 14 1,852 22 58 Berhampore 255 472 1,851 23 53 Benares Benares.. 748 1,839 16 2,459 21 39 Azimghur 35 44 1 1,257 28 57 Goruckpore 900 1,679 17 78 Saugor 666 1,708 Saugor.. Nowgong 236 449 Jubbulpore 904 2,366 8 2,565 12 01 1,902 1271 19 2,623 21 02 Morar, Gwalior 853 2,583 185 3,028 216 88 Fort Gwalior 254 340 10 1,339 39 37 Gwalior Lullutpore 155 982 4 6,335 25 81 Jhansi 584 1,587 21 2,717 35.96 Allahabad 1,235 2,960 Cawnpore 862 1,834 Setapore 624 Oude Lucknow 1,827 2,372 Roy Bareilly 504 436 941 58 2,397 46 96 52 2,128 60 32 7 1,508 11.22 24 1,298 13 14 8 865 15.87 Fyzabad 1,106 1,806 7 1,633 6.33 586 834 15 1,423 25.60 P.S.-Staff Surgeon Crawford, then Surgeon of the 18th Royal Irish, by whom these cases were treated, has given me the following information respecting them. They were well marked cases of narcotic poisoning by Stramonium, the seeds of which had been used by the toddy drawers to poison the contents of certain vessels in which the fresh toddy was received from the tree, apparently with a view to deter the soldiers but not to such an extent as to T. G. B. from stealing the toddy at night. Several others who had partaken of the toddy at the same time were affected in a similar manner, require to be taken into hospital. |