The following quotation from Mr. Acton’s book will suffice to show what I mean. He is speaking of a particular regiment.
“In 1851, Dr. Gordon, surgeon to the 57th, read a paper before the Surgical Society of Ireland, in which he states, (see ‘Dublin Medical Press,’ February 26th, 1851,) that during the year ending 31st March, 1850, the following number, out of an average strength of 408 men, were treated for venereal diseases in the head-quarters hospital—
| “Number admitted | 113 | |
| Number of days in hospital | 2519 | |
| Amount of soldiers’ pay | £136 | 10 9 |
“At the first blush, the economist would be apt to imagine that a very large sum of money is lost to the state annually by the inroads of syphilis. It is but fair to state that this is not the case, as tenpence a day is stopped from each man’s pay while he is in hospital, so that about five-sixths of his wages are recovered. The actual loss to the country is his time, which, however, during peace, is non-productive.
“From the statistical reports on the sickness, mortality, and invaliding among the troops in the United Kingdom, the Mediterranean, and British America, presented to Parliament some years ago (1839), it would appear that syphilis is a fatal enemy to the British soldier.
| “Total cases during seven and a quarter years | 8,072 |
| Total aggregate strength for do. | 44,611 |
| Annual mean strength for ditto | 6,153 |
“Thus 181 per 1000, or about one man in five appear to have been attacked.
“Let us compare this with the following statistics extracted from a report on army diseases from 1837 to 1847.
“Aggregate strength:
| Cavalry | 54,374 |
| Foot-guards | 40,120 |
| Infantry | 160,103 |
| Total | 254,597 |