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Ko. 445, October 2,1858.] •
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CONSUMPTION IN THE ARMY. (To t iw Editor...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Relations Of Science To Government. Lite...
all science , to Government , is that practically occupied bv the newspaper press and political economy . They should be perfectly dependent on facts or on the laws of Nature , and perfectly independent of Government ,- Their judgment concerning , it will then not be biased by fear or hope . , On , its acts scientific meu arc required , in common witn ^ all citisens , to form an opinion . The power w . iich Govern ^ ment exercises is their power , for the due exercise suffer like
of whicli they are responsible . They other citizens from excessive taxation , bad laws , and wasting wars , or they share fully m all the advantages of freedom and of extended commerce . They cannot escape this responsibility ; we are all bound together by one chain of mental influence , and all suffer or enjoy from the decay or growth of society . They should be prepared , therefore , to demonstrate the advantages to the return of any line of policy they support or recommend . fro dif
No great evil may perhaps ensue m a - ferent conduct on the part of our scientific men , because we live under a Government controlled and even regulated by public opinion . But the deference which humbles science here to the foot of Government , operates in other countries where the Government continually commits so much wrong that it is no better than a nuisance . In fact , the principle followed leads scientific men to make no distinction between Governments , or if they make any , it is in favour of despotic Governments , because these continually bestow honours and rewards on the talents of whicli
they dread the free exercise . 1 his practice , so much admired by scientific men , and of late so much imitated here , originated in despotism , not in freedom . In free states the approbation of his fellow citizens is the true reward of the man of science ; in despotic states this is not suffered to have expression , and for it is substituted the pensions or the decorations of the despot . Thus the principle of making science dependent on Government makes it subserve the ends of despotism rather than of freedom .
Of society Government is only a part , but an important part , all the functions . of which require especially to be investigated by men of science , and for extending which without investigation they cannot answer any more than they can answer for assenting to a theory of astronomy or geology without being satisfied by facts of its correctness . Of all men , they who profess to investigate and interpret the laws of nature , while other men are engaged in preparing food and clothing and providing comforts and luxuries for their use , who pride themselves on never surrendering their judgment except to
facts and proofs , are most stringently bound to iollow out their own principles as to society . For them it is dishonourable to Assume , without p roof , because their self-love is gratified ,- that it is consistent with justice and truth and nature to humble science below Government . It makes the noblest pursuits of man inferior to Court intrigues or even the brutal force which seizes political power . The . solicitors for honours cannot , like the professors of political economy , nor even like the humble journalist , speak , nor even form , an honest opinion of the institution to which they continually appeal
for favour . They cannot , like the great preachers of old , thunder into the cars of men in high station the truths whicli they learn from investigating nature . Yet is their mission as the observers and interpreters of the universe of far wider import than any mission growing from a partial revelation . Deeply impressed with a conviction that knowledge of the external world is the suro guide to human wolfiire , wo regret that those whose duty it ia , in the gonoral division of labour , to acquire tins knowledge , should regard it as inferior to an error derived from old times and despotic institutions .
Ko. 445, October 2,1858.] •
Ko . 445 , October 2 , 1858 . ]
THE LEADER . 1031
Consumption In The Army. (To T Iw Editor...
CONSUMPTION IN THE ARMY . ( To t iw Editor of the Leader . ' ) Sib , —Your impression of last wook contains a' * elaborate paper by Mr . Neison ' on . a subject of which it . is impossible ) to exaggerate the importance ; and you havo yourself dealt with that paper in such tv manner as to enhance , if possible , the interest which naturally attaches to it . I trust , therefore , that in asking you for a placo in your columns , thai . I may examine tho vuluo of the ' opinions advanced by Mr . Ncison , I am acting in accordance with your own Ayishos . I ought nlao to add , in , justic ' o to myself , that the intercut I am known to have taken in the fate of the British soldier seems to impose
upon me , in simple consistency , the duty of examining Mr . Neison ' s facts , and the conclusions based upon them , and of taking the very earliest opportunity of signifying my agreement with , or dissent from , his views . Perhaps I ought also to premise that I write as one who shares the opinion of the Commissioners , which Mr / Neison - controverts ; and also as one who may claim to speak with such authority as is derived from a large experience of consumptive cases , some laborious statistical inquiries into the prevalence of consumption and the classes of persons whom it most afflicts and some special inquiries into the eliects ot overcrowding in producing that disease—inquiries which I have elsewhere adduced as iully supplying the very defect in the Commissioners' lieport to
which Mr . Neison calls attention . _ Mr . Neison says very truly of the Report ot the Commission , that no other witness , nor the commissioners themselves , have supplied any facts or numerical evidence leading to the conclusion at whicli they have arrived in their report , that overcrowding in ill-conditioned barracks is the main cause of the great destruction of life , by inducing phthisis in the British army ; but Mr . Neison knows perfectly well that there is much evidence in existence winch might have been adduced in support of consistent with the
their conclusion , if it had been limited object of his paper to bring it forward . I do not blame Mr . Neison for confining himselt to the Report of the Commission , and to his own statistical inquiries , but I am anxious to have it clearly understood that there is abundant evidence to be offered in support of the conclusion arrived at by the Commissioners . Some of that evidence will be found in a lecture on the mortality of the British army , delivered at the United Service Institution , and published by Mr . Renshaw , of the Strand—a lecture of which I forward to you a copy . I now proceed to examine Mr . Ncisoii ' s paper with the respect due to so able a statist , but with the freedom which such an important subject justifies and demands ; and that I may not take up too much of your space , or run the risk of wearying your readers , I will confine myself to an examination of Mr . Neison ' s tables , and try the value of his own unexpected conclusion by the light of his own facts . * If I understand Mr . Neison rightly , he dissents from the hypothesis rf ) f the commission , that overcrowding in ill-conditioned barracks is the cause of the excessive prevalence of phthisis in the army , on the ground that the deaths from phthisis do not increase with density of population iii the same ratio as the class of diseases now known as the zymotic class , of which typhus fever is a very conspicuous and very fatal member . I use the term density of nojrtdation in preference to the word overcrowding , inasmuch as Mr . Neison ' s statistical inquiries relate to' density of population and not to overcrowding , except as inferred from density of population . This distinction is not a mere refinement , for it is obviously quite possible that there may be great density of popnlatiou'without ^ overcrowding . Our large model lodging-houses arc decidod instanocs of density of population , for there are a great number of persons accumulated on a small area , but in lofty buildings , with spacious and airy rooms . On . the other hand , all our printing-offices , and many workshops , and manufactories afford examples of overcrowding , but not of density of population , for the persons employed do not live on the premises . So that there may !) o density of population without overcrowding , and overcrowding over and above , and even independent of , density of population . Our barracks afford examples of ' density of population and overcrowding combined . There arc large numbers of persons on . a given arcn , and these persons live in overcrowded rooms . It should also be ^ understood that London and the large manufacturing cities in every part of England combino density oi" population , measured by the number of inhabitants on a given superficial ' area , ^ y ith overcrowding" in the workshops and factories in which the population is so largely employed . So that wo have two kinds of overcrowding—{ he overcrowding which results from a largo number of houses being built on tho samo apace ( otherwise known as " density of population" ) , and 1 he . overcrowding ; of which workshops and Juctoriea aro the wecne . This twofold overcrowding exists in a high decree in London , . and in the manufacturing towns of Lancashire , but certainly in a loss < l « f > Tuo in tlio inixoti districts which yield the respective uvcrairo densities of 2 S-72 and
84-99 ; and this very combination of close sleepingrooms at night , with close workshops and factories throughout the day , acting on a very considerable section of the adult population , ought ( if the views of the Commission , in which I share , are sound ) to occasion an excess of consumption in the returns for the whole population . Accordingly yre find , on referring to Mr . Neison ' tables , selecting Abstract D as on the whole the most intelligible , that in Lancashire consumption , at the soldiers' ages , is nearly . 20 per cent , in excess of the average rate for all England , and in London 14 per cent ., while it is nearly 15 per cent , below the average in the districts characterised by least density of population . Now this is the sort of
contrast we should expect to prevail if consumption be really a disease produced or promoted by density of population and overcrowding . Of the two aggregate districts presenting an inferior degree of overcrowding to that prevailing in Lancashire and London , it will suffice to observe that in the one consumption is in excess , in the other in defect , and that the same difference obtains in respect of all the other classes of disease specified in the table , including the zymotic class . # # But though the figures in the table are quite m accordance with the theory ( for it is not an
hypothesis , though Mr . Neison prefers to give it this name ) that consumption may be produced or promoted by overcrowding , we are met by the objection that the class of zymotic maladies ( including all the contagious diseases — small-pox , measles , scarlet [ fever , typhus fever , Erysipelas—all the epidemic maladies less clearly traceable to contagion , or not at all caused by it—influenza , ague , remittent fever , rheumatism , cholera , diarrhoea , dysentery , quinsy , carbuncle—we are met , I say , by the objection that this class of diseases increases with density of population in a still greater degree : that
while density of population causes phthisis to fluctuate between -J- 2 U and — \ 5 , the same cause determines a fluctuation in the class of zymotic maladies represented by the figures + 42 and — 56 ; and this difference Mr . Neison regards as fatal to the theory which attributes the deaths from phthisis in the army to overcrowding . I confess that I cannot see the force of this objection . To make it of any real weight the position of the soldier in barracks ought to be shown to be the same , or nearly the same , as that , of the mass of the adult male population . But it is in many important particulars of them
altogether different . I will mention some . Scarcity of food , or unwholesome food , which is an acknowledged cause of fever and of diarrhoea and dysentery , often afflicts large communities when thrown out of work , but the soldier , in spite of a monotony in his diet , is well fed . Defective drainage and want of cleanliness arc other causes of the same diseases whicli prevail far and wide in every various degree of intensity among the general population , but little , if at all , allcct the soldier in barracks ; for the barracks arc generally well drained , and the soldiers are always clean . The
soldier , too , is more generally protected from smallpox than are the adult males of the general population . Here then we have efficient causes of extensive prevalence and wide fluctuation in the class of zymotic diseases among the general population from tho operation of which the soldier is , to a great extent , exempt . Hence the less liability of the soldier to the class qf zymotic maladies . On tho other hand , the soldier partly lives and wholly sleeps in jlhe samo barrack-rooms , which , considering that he is an adull man selected as exceeding the average stature , are excessively overcrowded . His case is not dissimilar from that
of the men acknowlodgedly most prone to consumption—men who sleep , like their neighbours , in crowded rooms at night , and work , unlike the more fortunate members of their class , in hot and crowded offices , workshops , and factories . The soldier , as 1 have said before , partly lives and wholly sleeps in rooms disgracefully overcrowded ; and , as a necessary consequence , ho suffers more than ho ought to ' do from zymotic diseases , and much more than he should do from consumption .
Of other causes of consumption allecting the soldier in a peculiar degree 1 say nothing at present . Suffice it ; to observe that , in my opinion , there is nothing in Mr . Neisun ' s paper , when fairly oonsiile . reil , to upset the theory ol the Commission , His mot hud is l ' aultv , inasmuch aa In ; eonibats a theory founded on ( lie overerowcMiiff oi living mid sleeping rooms bv facts rch . iiiiff luilenmlv ol population ; imd compares bnmicks , which are comparatively free , from delects oi clnunago and neglect
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101858/page/15/
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