HEALTH OF THE NAVY.

WITH reference to our paper in the December number, relative to the health of the Navy, we now take the liberty of reprinting the following article from the Broad Arrow in continuation of the subject, and as shewing to some extent the allocation of disease in various parts of the world.

"In concluding our remarks under this head, it is a pleasure to revert to one striking instance in which the preventible causes of disease have been seriously dealt with by the authorities. On the West Coast of Africa and Cape of Good Hope Station there was in the year 1869 a reduction in the number of cases equivalent to 248.1 per 1000 of force as compared with the previous year. The invaliding rate and the death rate were also both reduced, the former to the extent of 19.5 per 1000 of force, and the latter to the extent of 2.6 per 1000. This so far satisfactory result is to be accounted for by the adoption of a policy similar to that we have advocated for Rio and Valparaiso-namely, the system of cruising. The advantages of the new system appear by contrast with what occurred in the case of crews which were exposed to the malaria of rivers even for a few days. Thns, there were fifty-two cases of remittent fever in the Fly, which had proceeded on duty up the River Congo; forty-four cases in the Lynx, the crew of which were exposed to the miasma of the River Niger; forty-four cases in the Pioneer, up the same river; and eighteen cases in the Sirius, all attributable to a short stay at Lagos and St. Paul's de Loanda. Testimony is borne by this section of the report to the beneficent working of the muchabused Contagious Diseases Act. The infection was greater at Cape Town than at Simon's Bay, where local circumstances favoured the more rigid application of the Act; and the consequences were more serious still at Sierra Leone, where the Act could not be made to work at all, owing to the habits of the entire negro population. The difficulties seem to be insuperable here and at all places down the coast. Power to carry out the Act cannot be given to the native police, as they would use it as an engine to carry out their private ends, instigated by revenge or pique, or even for the mere pleasure of giving annoyance to others.

"The squadron on the East India Station in 1869 consisted of twelve vessels, viz., two of the fourth-rate, one of the sixth-rate, four sloops, two gun-vessels, and three troopships, with a mean

force, corrected for time of 2300. The total number of cases of disease and injury entered on the sick list was 4277, which is in the ratio of 1859.5 per 1000, being a decrease compared with the previous year, equal to 218.8 per 1000. There was also a decrease in the invaliding rate to the extent of 21.7 per 1000, but an increase in the rate of mortality equal to 1.6 per 1000. The total average number of men sick daily was 119.7, which is in the ratio of 52 per 1000, showing a reduction as compared with the previous year of 13.9 per 1000.

"The cases of smallpox which occurred on board the Forte and the Jumna at Muscat and Bombay were caused by infection ashore, and the progress of the epidemic was speedily stopped by isolation. Two cases occurred in the Octavia during the first week in March, the same time of year at which the epidemic of 1866 broke out at Bombay. The prompt removal of the patients to hospital, and the re-vaccination of all who could not show satisfactory signs of protection, prevented the spread of the contagion. Thirty-eight persons were vaccinated from a native child sent off by the superintendent of vaccination in Bombay, twenty-nine of which 'took well.' It seems to be proved by the statistics that smallpox is more apt to attack Europeans at Bombay in early spring than at any other season of the year. There were two cases of smallpox in the Star, caused perhaps by contact with captured slaves. The surgeon observes, I had little fear for the ship's company, as all were vaccinated, and had passed unharmed, with one exception, through a severe epidemic of the disease which occurred among a number of slaves on board in the previous year.' This surely scores one in favour of the policy of vaccination!

"Two cases of cholera occurred in the squadron, both of which proved fatal; one in the Dryad, during the passage from Zanzibar to Bombay, the other in the Malabar at Bombay. The interest of these cases or rather, of the first of them-arises from the report of the surgeon, Dr. O'Connor, who, supported by the opinion of the well-known African traveller, Dr. Kirk, traces the origin of this fearful scourge to the interior of Africa, and not to its endemic home' as it has been called, in Lower Bengal or elsewhere in India. It had been previously noticed that the disease, when it appeared on the African seaboard, had appeared first inland, and that it advanced to seaward; yet little attention was paid to the fact, owing to the preoccupation of men's minds with the notion that cholera was of Asiatic origin, and perhaps to the difficulty that would be felt as to the possibility of the disease crossing the desert of Morocco. The conclusion now arrived at is, that cholera reaches

the coast from the interior of Africa by the Pagany route. Between the end of November, 1869, and June, 1870, it was estimated that 30,000 persons were carried off by the chalera in Zanzibar alone, but Dr. Kirk reduces the number to something between ten and fourteen thousand. The disease was equally, if not more virulent, amongst the shipping in the harbour; some vessels were forced to put back into Zanzibar within a few days after leaving port, having lost more than half their crews. The slaves and negro population were almost the sole sufferers at first; a little later the poorer Arabs, and later still the richer Arabs and Europeans. It was remarked, too, that the purer the African type, and the lower in the scale of civilization, the greater aptitude did they seem to possess for catching the contagion, the greater the severity did it show, and the more fatal did it prove. It was remarked also that recent arrivals, and persons shifting their quarters, or otherwise attempting to fly from the disease, showed a remarkable susceptibility to the contagion. Without extending further these details, it must be obvious that the medical men attached to the Naval Service who have contributed to the report, have furnished valuable data to their profession, and that the idea of compiling this periodical census of their experiences and results is one that cannot be too highly commended, whether in the interests of the Naval Service or of the country at large.

"It is noticeable, again, that the worst and most numerous cases of that form of disease recently legislated against occurred at stations where the Act could not be applied, as at the Seychelles Islands and Bombay; the registration at the latter place having been only for purposes of taxation, and, therefore, not remedial. We have repeatedly called attention to facts of this kind in the course of our remarks on the health of the Navy, because the Act is still strenuously opposed by certain classes, and will probably be the subject of some discussion in the ensuing session. On the China Station, to which we have now to call attention, there were in 1869, about fifty men on an average daily incapacitated from service from the disease referred to alone. In the Ocean alone there were one hundred and seventeen cases, which, for the most part, originated at Yokohama, which has the character of being the most infected place in the East. In the Pearl there were fifty-two cases; in the Rodney, ninety-eight; in the Princess Charlotte, twenty-nine; in the Cormorant, nineteen. Most of these cases were contracted at Yokohama and Nagasaki, before the system of examination was organised at the former place. At Nagasaki, we believe, no sanitary measures have even yet been adopted. There is nothing

more in the Report of special interest in connection with the China. Station. Of the Australian Station, it is scarcely necessary to remark, still less has to be said; while to speak of the vessels comprised in the 'Irregular Force,' would only be to go over again much of the ground already traversed.

"To sum up; the total force in the Service afloat, corrected for time, in the year 1869, was 48,820; and the total number of cases of disease and injury entered on the sick list was 59,326, which is in the ratio of 1,221.9 per 1000, being a decrease compared with the previous year of 30.5 per 1000. The lowest sick rate was on the Home Station, and the highest on the China Station; but let us give the exact figures. The daily proportion of sick on the Home Station was 38.3 per 1000 of force; on the Mediterranean Station it was 53.0 per 1000; on the North America and West India Station it was 51.6; on the South-East Coast of America, 44; Pacific, 58.2; West Coast of Africa and Cape of Good Hope, 57·1; East Indies, 52-9; China, 617; Australia, 55.9, and in the irregular force, 46.7. Compared with the previous year, the greatest reduction in the invaliding rate was on the East Indies Station, where it was equal to 21.7 per 1000. This is readily accounted for by the fact that in 1868 the squadron on that station suffered severely from exposure in the Red Sea in connection with the Abyssinian Expedition. There was also a reduction in the ratio of invaliding on the West Coast of Africa and Cape of Good Hope Station to the extent of 19.5 per 100. On the other hand, there was a large increase in the rate of mortality on the North American and West Indies Station, where it was as much as 14.2 per 1000. Thus the compte rendu is, on the whole, a chequered one, but with a positive balance of gain in the Profit and Loss. It proves that medical and sanitary science in the Royal Navy are hard at work, producing, indeed, unequal results on this hand and on that, but nevertheless steadily advancing to the proposed end. We have spoken more than once of preventible causes which have not always received the enlightened attention they should, yet, truth compels us to add, when all is said and done, that the most preventible of all causes is one that lies within the responsibility of the men themselves. Much may be done by Act of Parliament, but no Act of Parliament can save them from the consequences of their own reckless folly."

SOCIETIES-MEETINGS, ETC.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.-SESSION 1871-2.-November 27th, -Major-General Sir H. C. RAWLINSON, President, in the Chair. The President read a letter from Dr. Kirk, of Zanzibar, to the late Sir Roderick Murchison, giving news of a serious outbreak in Unyanyembe, the country lying on the main route to Lake Tanganyika, which is likely to prevent communication with Dr. Livingstone for some time to come. The letter was dated September 25th, and stated that a native chief, having been attacked by a force of Arabs settled in Unyanyembe, had waited his assailants in ambush when returning with their plunder, and had killed many of the principal men. Mr. Stanley, an American gentleman, who was travelling to Lake Tanganyika, and who had charge of letters and stores for Dr. Livingstone, was in the fray, and had been deserted by the Arabs. He had also been ill of fever, and his future plans were uncertain. A report, to which Dr. Kirk attached little credence, had spread in Zanzibar to the effect that Livingstone and the Arab Mohammed bin Gharib, with whom he had been living, were returning round the south end of Tanganyika, and out of the region of the disturbances.

Captain R. F. Burton, in commenting upon this letter, informed the meeting that similar affrays between Arab trading parties and the natives had occurred before, and that this unsettled state might continue for two or three years. He thought that Livingstone would find no difficulty in returning by the south of the lake, and that a fearless man like him, speaking the native languages, would be able to pass through the disturbed districts. He had not the slightest misgiving with regard to him.

Captain Burton then read a paper on "The Volcanic Region East of Damascus and the Cave of Umm Nírán." This was a narrative of a hazardous journey of fifteen days, which he had performed in May and June, 1871, in company with Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake, through the Safá Region, the Oriental Trachon of the Greek Geographers, a wide extent of ancient lava-fields, the hills of which, like little pyramids, dot the eastern horizon, as viewed from Damascus. The danger and difficulty of visiting the many interesting places in this district arose simply from certain petty tribes of Bedouin, descendants of the refractory robbers of the Trachonitís, who dwelt in the highlands of the Hauran, under the patronage of the Druses. The worst are the Ghiyás and the Shtáyá, who, although they have given hostages, were allowed, during the