Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/91

 '''13. RISK OF LIFE'''.—The risk of life in India is very considerably greater than in Britain; and three per cent, premium above the English rate is required on the insurance of lives. The average rate of mortality amongst European troops is five or six per cent, per annum, and of native troops, only one or two per cent. The mortality amongst medical men in all climates is greater than that of most others, and from authentic tables it is ascertained that of 100 medical men only 24 attain the age of 70; of so many lawyers, 29; and of so many clergymen, 42. The risk of life amongst new-comers is no doubt higher than amongst those inured to the country, and that risk is greater amongst those arriving late in life than amongst those of the age of puberty. Hence a reason why the stranger should be more cautious in his whole economy than the acclimatized. The climate of India is very inimical to children; most parents that can afford it send them to Europe about the age of six. The offspring of Europeans born and bred in the country is weakly and unhealthy—each successive generation becomes degenerated—even when the British blood has been kept pure, and unless re-invigorated by a European climate, the whole race would, before the fourth generation be extinct or good for nothing. How fallen from the status of their ancestors are