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Show 384 ACCLIMATION; OR, TilE INFLUENCE OF frontier of t.hc Capo, whore Uti ~ cii\HS of troops is principally employed; and they n.re ocMsionally without vcgotablc or ful'innccous food for several weeks, at which times they often consnmo from two to threo pounds of meat daily; and their usual meat-ru.tion is at all times as great as that of tho European soldier. Intoxication, with t\rdont and fermented spirits, or by smoking largo quantities of a coarse description of hemp, is also by no means uncommon among thorn; yot has this corps proved ns ben !thy ns tho Maltese Foncibloe, and still moro so thnn tho native army of the East Indios, whoso comparative exemption ftom disenso has by somo been attributed to tho simplicity of their diet, and their goneml ubstinonoo from evet•y species of intoxication. ]'acts liko these show with whnt onution deductions s!Jould be dmwn, whou tho returns of only one class of men arc before us; and how necessary it is in litis, as in every other species of statistical inquiry, to extend the sphere of observation, with o. view to 1\Ccumtc results. "I shall next ndvort to a olnss of troops who, though born within tho Tropics, and serving in tropical colonies, arc not natives of tho climate in which they are stationed. First of these, in number o.nd impot·tance, arc tho three West Indio. corps, recruited principally from negroes captured in slfwc-ships, or inhnbitants of tho west coast of Africo.. 'rhoso men are distributed throughout Jamaica and the West India isln.nds; and take tho duty of those stations wbiob long experience has shown to be inimical to the henlth of Europeans. "i'hc strength and mortality of this class, for tho snme two years as were before referred to, have been as follows: Jamaica. STltF.NOTH, Year ending Blst March, 1846...... ......... ......... ... 770 1840...... ......... ... .. ... ... 912 DEATHS. 17 B6 Average of these two years............................... 841 26! Wtst Indies. STRENGTH, DEATUS. Ye~tr ending Blat March, 1846 ...... ...... ...... ......... 904 28 1846 ........................... 1176 32 Average of these two years ............................... lo'ii4 27~ "Those troops being frequently removed from island to island, thoro would be no utility in stt\ting tho sepnrate mortality in onch, as, in most instnnces, tho calculntion would in~olvo broken periods of a year; but, on t!Je whole, it appo1trs that, in Jttmaicn, the mor· tahty has been at the rate of abont Bl, ancl in tho West Indies 26 pot· 1000 of tho force annually; while the mortality of the same class of troops, at tho anmc stations, dllt·ing the ~wonty years a~tecodont to 18B.6, was respectively 30 per 1000 in Jamaica, and 40 pet· 1000 Ill tho West Incites-thus sltOwtng a marked reducti-on in the mortality at the latter, during the lttst two years. "On referring to tho preceding results, a very matcrinl difference will be found between tb.c mortality of this class of troops, and that of tho Cnpo corps o.ncl Mnlteso Fcnoibles \~ho 11ro serving in theit· native climate: t.hc former being nearly font· times as high a~ ottltet' of tho latter. Though tho climate of tho West Indies is probably O.R wnrm as thnt of tho interior of Afric~" [in which the author is mistttken], "whence tbo negroes are genot·olly drawn, yet thetr constitutions never have, and probn.bly never will, become assit~ ilated to it. T~e high rate of mot·tality among them can, in no respect, be attributed ctthor to. tho hnbtts or tho duties of tho uogt·o soldier; for others of the atune race, who arc not Ill tbe army, suft'or in a corresponding proportion" [as we shall take occasion to show, on a lnrge scalo.-J. C. N.] . "lly a very exten~ivo in~e~tiga;ti·on, into which I outored when engaged in the preparn.tton or tile Wcst-Indta ~tnt1sttcnl Report, about seven years ago" [already referred to], "I found that tho tnorta!tty among tho nogt·o slave-population, even including families who CLIMATE AND DISEASES ON MAN. 38G hn.d been for scvcml gonemtions in those colonies, amounted to about 80 per 1000 annually, of nll1~gos. Vct·y little of this mortality occurred among inft1nt lifo: it fc11 pl'incipally 011 per~ons of mature ago; nmong which class it was ncndy double tho proportiou usually observed among the. civil popul11tion in this country. '!'hat, under such a mortnlity, tho negt·~ rac.o ctm ?v~~· mcreaso, or o~en keep up their unmbors, iu tho West Indies, appears 11 phystcnlunposstbt!tty; 1\nd thoro 1s good ronson to bolio.vc, that tho want of labor 80 much co~npls\in d of, nnd tho dcmnnd .for immigration ft·om othct· countl'ics, ~0 much in~istcd on, nnsos mot·o from the wnste of lifo, thrLU from tho iucroasiug cultivn.tion of tho soil . and thnt n Clirofttl invostig11tion iuto the mortality of tho negro population, l\t diJforont 1ogcs, wo~ld s~ow thnt the pct.·io(l is not ftLt· distant, at which that race would become ontit·oly cxtmot m tho West Indws, but for the occasional accession to their numbers by fresh importations. "'l'ho reHttits on which these observations, as to tho mortality of the negro popul~ttion, were founflod, extended, it is true, ovct· a pol'iod when slnvory prevailed in tho islnnd; 21 and it would be interesting to those philanthropists who then attributed tho high rate of mortality to that cnusc, now to trn<le, from tho returns of each islttnd, whether any diminution ltas tnkcn plncc since freedom was ostablisltod among our sable brethren; but when it is shown, by those 1'osults, tltat negro soldiers, in the pl'imo of life, with every ndvantagc, in point or income, clothing, comfort, and mcdicnlnttcn lt~nco, which the lll'itislJ soldier enjoys -with precisely tho snuto eliot (if that can bo considered rm o.dvantngo), and with much gt·et~tc t· rcguln.rity of h11bits tlutn ho can bon.st or, nrc subject to r~n ttmtual mortality of from 2~ to 3~ por cent., there ·is little t·cason to hope that, whothor bond or free, tho negro ruoo will ever thrive or increase in tho West Indies. "The same rcnutrks, ns rcgnrds the un~uito.bloness of tho climate, will, in a groat mco.snre, apply to the next clnss of troops to which I have to ttdvort, viz., the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, composed of Jlfal~ty8, brought principltlly from the StJ·nits of Mulo.cca, for tho purposo of serving in Ceylon; whot·o the climate, though equally wnrrn, docs not n.ppo1u· by tmy mo1tns congenial to their constitution, as must be apparent from the following results regarding tho mort~tlity: 8T t~P.N01'11. D}lATIIS, Year ending Blat March, 1846 ........................... 1962 46 1846.............. .... .. .. ... .. 1 DBO B6 Avorngo of those two years .... .................... .... .. 1941 41 mtlking an annual mortality of 21 per 1000; while tho rntio nmong the same class of troops, for the twenty yonrs antcccdont to 1836, wns 27 pOt' 1000 nnnunlly. "'l'houglJ this mortnlity is considembly lowot· th1\11 tlmt of tho negro troops in the Wost Indies, it is ncnrly twice ns high a~ that which occurs among the untivo troops sorviug on tho continent of India adjnocnt-a sufficient proof thnt tho !\Inlay rncc is never likely to bocomo assimilated to tho climate of' Ceylon; indeed, it ltns long boo11 a subject of remark, that, though their children have been cucourngcd to cnt.or tho sorvico at n vory onl'iy ago, in order to recruit tho force, that expedient has proved iusulliciout, wiluout t.he constant importution of recruits from tho Mnlny coast. "The mortality nmong this clnss of t1·oops, ns nmong evct·y other to which I ltavc advot·ted, has undergone n con~idcmblo rcdnction within the ln~t two yonr~, as compn.t·od with tho twenty years nntcccdcnt to 1830-owing, rto doubt, to 11\t.o improvements and amoliomtions in the condition of tho soldier; but thoro is little l1opc, either in tho cCtSo of tho Malay or the negro, thnt t!Jis J•cduction will be auflicicntly progressive to holll out a J'OaRottable prospect of these ro.rcs becoming thot·oughly nssimilatcd to tho climnto of c~y lon, in tho ono case, or tho West Indies, in tho other. 21 It will bo made to n.ppoar, further on, t!Jo.t &lavery has nothing to do with this result. On the contrary, emancipation invurittbly (in Amoriot1) has incronsed tho rntio of mortality. 25 |