Chapter I.]

GENERAL STATISTICS OF THE ARMY FOR THE SIX YEARS.

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            The total deaths of the Army in India are shown below:—

The Ratios of Sickness, Mortality
and Invaliding for the Army of India,
and the general deduction warranted
by these ratios.

         In the Report of the Army Sanitary Commission, published in 1863, the anticipation was
made, that, under the improved conditions then proposed, the
Army of India would eventually show a death-rate of 20 per
1,000; and a lower rate was anticipated in the event of the
chief causes of mortality being found to be more or less
under control when systematically studied, and when a correct
etiology was made the basis of sanitary measures. And the anticipated reduction of mortality
would, it was inferred, be attended by a corresponding diminution of the hospital population,
and an increase of the effective strength.

              The following are the results for the past six years:—

Annual Ratios of Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding.

ARMY OF INDIA, 1871-76.

All throughout is to be observed the tendency to system and order, except in the one main
cause of fluctuation, namely, cholera. The daily sick-rates are most consistent; and in the last
four years the admission-rates have been nearly identical. The proportion of violent deaths varies
scarcely at all from year to year; and the deaths from climatic diseases have varied by only 1
per 1,000 for the last four years, while the ratio is as small as the most sanguine observer
could have hoped for ten years since. The ratio for 1876 is smaller than that of any previous
year; and the aspect of the whole seems to indicate that we are holding under control the
sickness and mortality of the Army, and that chance and the vicissitudes of Indian service
have done little in this period to disturb the normal equilibrium. The more we go into details
the more will this steadiness become apparent, and these results afford a good guarantee
that in the future what has been accomplished will be maintained. We have had no ex-
amples of the troops within a provincial area becoming rapidly deteriorated as a body by evil
epidemic influences.

Fluctuations in the Ratios of Sick-
ness and Mortality must occur, since
epidemic seasons certainly recur at
intervals in India.

Seasons such as 1856, 1860-61, and 1869 must recur in India, but it is our expectation
that in such a case the influence of an epidemic of fever or even of
cholera, shall fall lightly in comparison with former experience,
and that the constitutions of the men affected shall not be
undermined beyond recovery, as was too frequently the case in
formertimes. But I should hold out a false hope were I to allege
that under favourable sanitary conditions the effects of epidemic influences, over which we have
no control, can be altogether abrogated. Take the years 1868 and 1869 as illustrative; and
while it is true that the epidemics of malaria and cholera ran a parallel course all over Northern
and Western India, it was fever, and not cholera, which determined the general character of
the year over the vast tract affected from the Ganges to the Indus:

B