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Mortality In Armies

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Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
March
Year
1884
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A learncd Professor of the University at l'avia has compiled and published a statistical account of the proportionate numbcTof deaths in European arraies. He iiuds that in every 10,000 men the comparative mortality amounts to onlv 67 in Prussian armies, whereas in the English it is 84 and in the French 92, ivliile in tho Austrian and Jtalian itrises toas high as 112 and 116. Thisvery moderate number reeorded to the credit of Prussia is the more remarkable inasmucli as it is said to have been ascertained that in her armies a considerable number of deaths are the result of suicide. There are, however, some other very curious anomalies in the table thus made out. For instance, the tendency of soldiers to die appears to increase and decrease almost in inverse proportion to the rate of mortality among civilians. Thus, among the latter, the number of deaths in every 10,000 amounts to 217 in England, 244 in France, and 269 in Prussia. Thiswoukl make it appear that in the last-mentioned country the warriors are about five times less likely to die than the civil population; whereas in France and England they are only twice as unlikely to pay the debt of nature. The Professor is obliged to infer from this that the sanitary eonditions under which Prussian soldiers live are very far more satisfactory than those of military life in England or France. But it may be suggested that some other important considerations ought to be admitted in explaining the difference between the three armies. French and still more espocially British soldiers, are exposed to all sorts of risks in the unhealthy districts to which they are liable to be 8enl, even in times of peaco, whereas Germany, with its lack of cólonies, has o occasion to send the children of tho Fatherland to such outlandish and ncomfortable quarters. But this explanation still leaves it an open question why the Prussian hosts should be so much more healthy than the Austrain, which enjoy a similar imniunity.

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News