Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/485

 APPENDIX. 441 was) would seem to have been caused by treatmg as ' eiitr(js par ' billet ' patients received from on board ship who, though not transferred from any other hospital, strictly so called, had come nevertheless from the ambulances. To people unversed in the medical statistics of annies, a statement showing ' admissions ' largely in excess of strength is apt to be startling, but may never- theless be accurate. Every ailment that puts a soldier ' off duty ' for the moment shows itself in the form of a ' hospital admission.' Note 24.— 'Kapport,' pp. 58, 69, 72, 75, 82, 89, and 91, and this out of a strength of — Li October 1854, .... 45,000 November, 56,000 December, 65,000 January 1855, .... 78,000 February, 89,000 March, 95,000 April, 91,000 —Ibid. Note 25. — Besides the andjulances and the hospitals, there were 'regimental iufiiinaries, ' — one for each regiment, with means of receiving fifty patients in each. Note 26.— 'Kapport,' pp. 75, 82, 89, 91, and Tables, ibid., from p. 535 to 554. Note 27. — Note shoimng how the French Bc'infwcements inter- fered with the expedient of judging Health from the percentage of Sick. — Sujipose the commander of the French 'Army of the East' to be on the ' Heights before Sebastopol ' with an army of 30,000, of whom ten per cent are in hospital, when in comes a despatch announcing that he is reinforced by the arrival in the Dardanelles of 15,000 fresh troops, all in a sound state of health. He there- upon sees that the ratio of his sick to his strength has dropped all at once from 10 to 7i per cent ; biit he would not of course treat this change of percentage as showing any improvement in the health of his troops on the Chersonese. Before any such use could be made of percentages, it would be necessary to base them upon very special returns, showing how many of the reinforcing troops had not only landed in the Crimea, but fairly come under those influences — wet, cold, fatigue, and privation — which were fast sending men into hospital. Note 28. — 'Rapport,' p. 5/9. The number (inconsistently with the heading of the return) includes 308 ' marins,' and 846 deaths, occurring either on board ship or in naval hospitals.