MIASMATIC DISEASES furnish the following results when subdivided into United

Kingdom.

United

On comparing these with the ratios of 1860, a marked reduction will be Kingdom. found in the admissions by Eruptive Fevers in the Household Cavalry, Foot Guards, and Depôt Battalions, and in Paroxysmal Fevers in the Royal Artillery and Depôt Battalions.

Continued Fevers have been much less prevalent in the Household Cavalry, Military Train, Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery, and the Depot Battalions, while there has been a marked increase in the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons, the 3rd, 13th, and 14th Hussars, and 5th Dragoon Guards being the regiments which furnished the highest numbers of cases. In the 13th Hussars 78 cases of continued fever were treated, being in the ratio of 128 per 1,000 of the strength. The cases were all mild, and yielded readily to treatment; but no reason is assigned by the Surgeon of the regiment for the great prevalence of the disease.

Dysentery, Diarrhea, and Cholera, were more prevalent than in the preceding year in the Household Cavalry, Dragoon Guards and Dragoons, and Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery; but there was a reduction in their amount in the Royal Artillery and Military Train.

In the beginning of March a sudden outburst of diarrhoea occurred in the 3rd Hussars at Dundalk, accompanied in many of the cases with vomiting and febrile symptoms, and was attributed by the Surgeon of the regiment to the use of some stale or imperfectly-cured fish which the men had procured. Between the night of the 6th and morning of the 8th there were 26 men attacked. The cases all did well, and the necessary measures having been taken to prevent the use of the unwholesome food the disease immediately ceased.

Sorethroat (Tonsillitis) and Influenza show a higher ratio in the Cavalry, Artillery, and Depôt Brigade of Artillery, and a lower in the Military Train, Cavalry Depôts, and Depôt Battalions, while the Foot Guards and Infantry Regiments differ but little from the previous results. If, however, the admissions from Bronchitis, the prevalence of which appears to be influenced by the same exciting causes, be added to those from Tonsillitis and Influenza, there will be found a reduction in all classes of troops, except the Household Cavalry, the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons, and the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery, in which there has been an increase. The following Table shows this more clearly:

Ratio of Admissions per 1,000 of Mean Strength by Tonsillitis,

Influenza, and Bronchitis.

Ophthalmia. The admissions on this account have been only half as numerous in the Depôt Brigade of the Royal Artillery as in 1860. In the other arms the difference scarcely seems to require notice.

ENTHETIC DISEASES.-Except in the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards, in which the admissions slightly exceed the ratio in 1860, these diseases have been less prevalent in all the arms. The invaliding on account of venereal has been 185 per 1,000 of the strength.

TUBERCULAR DISEASES.-The mortality by these has been very high in the Household Cavalry; but this can only be considered as an accidental fluctuation arising from the small numbers under observation. Omitting these troops and the depóts, in which the results are greatly affected by the number of men sent home for change of climate from abroad, the proportion of deaths by tubercular diseases is remarkable for its uniformity in all the arms, ranging between 2:41 per 1,000 in the Cavalry of the Line and the Foot Guards, and

1861 1860

2.75 in the Military Train. But it is in diseases of this class that the effect United of invaliding in reducing the mortality must be most strikingly seen. In Kingdom. estimating their influence, therefore, on the different arms, a correct conclusion can only be arrived at by combining the mortality and invaliding. This has, accordingly, been done in the following Table :

Ratio of Decrease by Deaths and Invaliding from Tubercular
Diseases per 1,000 of Mean Strength.

This shows the total loss to the service by these diseases to have been twice as great in the Foot Guards as in the Artillery or Infantry of the Line; and compared with the Cavalry and Military Train, to have been in the proportion of three to two, a result which confirms the remark already made as to the more serious character of the diseases which occasioned the invaliding in the Guards.

DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM have been less prevalent than in 1860 in the Household Cavalry and the Depôt Battalions; the reduction in the latter has been chiefly in cases of epilepsy and headache. There has been an increase in the amount of admissions in the Cavalry of the Line and the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery; in the former chiefly in cases of headache and inflammation of the ear (otitis); and in the latter in cases of amentia, epilepsy, and inflam mation of the ear. Two-thirds of the deaths by this class have been caused by apoplexy and paralysis. If the admissions by these two diseases be combined, their relative prevalence in the different arms will be found to be as follows:

From this Table it appears that the admissions by these diseases have been relatively very high in the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery, but the mortality by them has been under that of Troops of the Line.

Delirium tremens has given rise to fewer admissions than in the preceding year, and only two deaths are recorded under this head, while 12 were referred to it in 1860. Closely connected with this disease are the admissions under the head of intemperance (ebriositas), though arranged in a different class. They are very slightly under the former amount, but it has given rise to no deaths, whilst in 1860 it was recorded as the cause of eight. The admissions into hospital and deaths from delirium tremens and ebriositas, conjointly, were in the following proportion in the different arms:

The most striking point in this Table is the high ratio of admissions in the Depôts by these diseases, the direct result of drinking, The proportion of admissions in the Royal Artillery is also very high.

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.-The admissions into hospital by this class of diseases have been much lower than in 1860 among all the troops except the Household Cavalry and the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery, in the former of which the ratio remains the same, and in the latter is higher. The reduction has been chiefly in the cases of bronchitis, and has not extended to inflammation of the lungs and pleurisy, except in the Infantry Regiments and Depôt Battalions.

DISEASES OF THE INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM present the same peculiarity as last year of the higher proportion of boils, abscesses, and ulcers in the Cavalry than the Infantry, the Artillery holding an intermediate position in that respect.

ACCIDENTS.-Drowning still continues the cause of the greater proportion of casualties under this head.

SUICIDE has been of less frequent occurrence than formerly. Four deaths are reported in the Artillery, two in the Guards, three in the Infantry Regiments, and one in the Depôt Battalions. Three were committed by means of firearms, two by cutting throat, one by drowning, three by poison, and one by hanging. In 1860 there were 26 self-inflicted deaths.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT has given rise to fewer admissions than in 1860. There were none in the Household Cavalry, and in the other arms the proportion ranged between 3 in the Depôt Brigade Royal Artillery and 44 in the Military Train.

The other classes of diseases do not seem to call for special remark.

The following Table shows the sickness, mortality, and invaliding in each of the corps, from the returns of which the preceding Tables have been compiled.