[21] “Statistical Report on the Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding among the Troops in the West Indies.” Prepared from the Records of the Army Medical Department and War-Office Returns. London, 1838. It has been objected to these Reports that they embrace only one class of lives. But this does not diminish their value, for the lives they report on are presumed to be the selected lives of men in the prime of life.
[22] The army of England is, and perhaps has at all times been, an aggressive army, maintained to intimidate foreign races and nations. It resembles in many of its main features the army of ancient Carthage.
[23] Report: Section, Mediterranean.
[24] It may be asked, Why not inquire into the statistics of fever in Essex? The truth is, that no such exist. The conjectures and recollections of civil practitioners are valueless.
[25] As by the Registrar-General: see his Reports.
[26] The ancient Egyptians seem to me to have long ago settled this question, practically. On the subsidence of the Nile they, without a day’s delay, commenced agricultural operations; nothing was allowed to fall into rottenness or putrefaction.
[27] Liebig.
[28] Liebig: Letters on Chemistry.
[29] Report, p. 176.
[30] Liebig, 1851.