Parliamentary Papers

United
Kingdom.

Ratio per 1,000 admitted for Diseases of the Respiratory System,
Influenza, and Tonsillitis.

This Table, therefore, shows a decrease in the admissions by these diseases, except among the Household Troops at London and Windsor, where there has been a slight increase. It also shows the much greater prevalence of these affections in the dockyards and arsenals than at other stations, a result probably of the greater amount of duty and consequent exposure of the men.

VIOLENT DEATHS.-These amounted in the whole force to 80, of which 61 were returned as the result of accidental causes, and 33, or upwards of half of these, by drowning. In a large proportion the casualty is returned as "drowned," or "found drowned," the special circumstances under which it occurred not being known; but 11 of the men are reported to have been bathing, and 2 to have been drowned from boats. It seems desirable, with a view to reduce the number of these fatal accidents, that wherever there are facilities for it, the men should receive instruction in swimming.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.--The extent to which this has been inflicted has varied from one per 1,000 of the strength in London and Windsor, to 2.9 per 1,000 in the large manufacturing towns.

The other classes of diseases do not seem to require special comment.

We shall now submit the usual information respecting the sickness, mortality, and invaliding in the different arms of the service. A slight deviation has been made, on the present occasion, from the rule that no regiment should be included which had not been serving at home during the whole of the year. Towards the end of December several regiments embarked for British America, and as their exclusion would have materially reduced the field of observation, while no error of any importance could arise from their being included, the latter course was adopted, care being taken to make the necessary deduction from the strength of each corps for the period between its embarkation and the 31st of December. In other respects the following Table has been prepared in the same manner as in previous Reports.

* The greater number of the invalids from the Royal Artillery are discharged at

281 1,357 10.26 1,753 940 11 33

211
79.8

1,302 12 56

20.20

1,117 14 31

21.65

Admitted.

Died.

Invalided.

This Table shows a slight increase in the admissions into hospital of the United Cavalry, Foot Guards, the Cavalry Depôts, and the Depôt Brigade Royal Kingdom. Artillery; but a decrease in the Royal Artillery, Military Train, Infantry Regiments, and Depôt Battalions, compared with the average of the two preceding years. The mortality is below the previous average in all arms except the Household Cavalry and Military Train, and from the limited number of men in these corps fluctuations in the ratio may be naturally expected.

The mortality in the Depôt Battalions and Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery has been, as formerly, considerably in excess of the other arms of the Service. That this is in a great measure the result of the large proportion of men serving in them whose constitutions have been deteriorated by previous service, many of them having been sent home to the Depôts for change of climate, appears to be borne out by the fact that in a strength of 15,299 men under 25 years of age, in the Depôt Battalions, 115 deaths occurred, while in 6,671 men above that age, the deaths amounted to 134, or in the respective proportions of 7.52 and 20-09 per 1,000 of the strength. A corresponding difference is found to exist in the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery.

As in former Reports, for the sake of accuracy of comparison, the ratio of mortality has been calculated in the following Table on the same proportion of men at different periods of life in each arm, the numbers serving in the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons in 1861 being taken as the standard, and the results of previous years being reduced to it.

8.85

Civil Male Population of healthy districts in England }

and Wales

Ditto ditto of England and Wales generally

This shows the mortality to have been lower than in the most healthy districts of England in the Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry Regiments, and higher in the Military Train, Foot Guards, Depôt Brigade of Artillery, and the Depôt Battalions. But it must not be forgotten that this is wholly irrespective of the diseased lives eliminated from the ranks of the Army by the process of invaliding.

The invaliding in all the arms, except the Household Cavalry, has been higher than in 1860, and this may, perhaps, account for the lower rate of the mortality. It must not, however, be concluded that the higher ratio of invaliding necessarily implies a greater amount of inefficiency in the different arms of the Service. The strength of the army having been raised above the authorised establishment it became necessary to reduce it. For this purpose recruiting was for a time suspended, and the opportunity was taken to discharge a number of the least efficient men who, although under ordinary circumstances they would have continued to serve, were for this reason included among the invalids. As this did not affect the Household Cavalry, the Foot Guards, or the Royal Artiliery, there is no corresponding increase in the number of invalids from them.

With a view to estimate the influence of this increase in the invaliding upon the mortality of the different arms, we have obtained from the War Office a return of the number of men placed on the pension list during the

Woolwich, and appear in the return of the Depôt Brigade. The ratio per 1,000 is therefore calculated upon 13,335, the average strength of the corps serving at home.

United

year from each of the Corps included in the preceding Table, and the deaths Kingdom. among these pensioners between the period of their discharge and the 31st of December. For the purpose of accurately comparing the mortality of the two years, similar information has been obtained regarding the various Corps included in the Report for 1860, and the whole reduced to the following tabular form. It must be remembered, however, that these numbers include all the men discharged with a pension whether for disability or length of service, and do not include men discharged for disability who had no claim to pension, the mortality among whom there are no means of tracing.

It may be fairly presumed that any mortality among these men in excess of the ordinary rate was the result of disease contracted in the service, and their deaths should consequently be included in any calculation of the mortality among the troops As, however, the men when discharged were struck off the strength of their corps, a correction must be made also in the strength. The invaliding being distributed over the whole year, the reduction caused by it in the average strength of the troops for that time would be equal to half the numbers discharged, and this addition has accordingly been made in the following Table :

Deaths

Average Deaths Ratio of Average Deaths Ratio of
Strength of Deaths Strength of
corrected Soldiers per 1,000 corrected Soldiers per 1,000
as and Pen- of
as and Pen- of
above. sioners. Strength above. sioners. Strength.

This Table shows an increase in 1861 in the mortality of the Cavalry and Foot Guards, and a decrease in that of the Artillery, Military Train, and Infantry Regiments. The rate of mortality is highest in the Foot Guards, and it may, therefore, be presumed that the invaliding from them, though less in amount than from the other arms, except the Household Cavalry and the Artillery, as shown in Table, p. 12, was on account of disabilities of a more serious nature.

The following Table, compiled from Abstract No. I. of Appendix, shows the admissions, deaths, and discharges by invaliding caused by each of the principal classes of diseases.