Copies of the reports made by Major General Eyre's Committee on Infantry Equipment to the Secretary of State for war; of the correspondence that has taken place between the committee and Lieutenant Colonel Carter; and, of the correspondence at the Horse Guards and War Office, which refers to the equipment proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Carter.

  • Great Britain. War Office. Committee on Infantry Equipment.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Copies of the reports made by Major General Eyre's Committee on Infantry Equipment to the Secretary of State for war; of the correspondence that has taken place between the committee and Lieutenant Colonel Carter; and, of the correspondence at the Horse Guards and War Office, which refers to the equipment proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Carter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    These numbers, it must be remembered, represent only a portion of the actual invalids, as the invalids from the Guards, the Royal Artillery, and the troops in Ireland are not included. Now, certainly, this does appear a very large number; and even if it were not greater than what would occur in civil life, which we doubt extremely, it would still require us to endeavour to determine the causes and see if there may not be some means of saving the State from so great a loss, and the parishes from so great a burden. (b.) As regards Lung Disease.—To answer this question we have only the in- validing returns from Fort Pitt for two years (1860-62). It appears that of men under two years' service 29*99 per cent., or almost one man in every three, were invalids for lung disease (chiefly consumption), while in invalids of all ages only 19 8 per cent., or one man in every five, was invalided for lung disease. We have no statistics among the civil population which can properly compare with these numbers, as the civil statistics merely record the deaths, but. there is very little, or indeed, no doubt that lung diseases are much more common among soldiers than among civilians, and the above numbers seem to show that they are more common among young than old soldiers. It appears from the Fort Pitt returns that in two years 304 invalids under two years' service were discharged for lung disease. Now, every one of these men was carefully examined on enlistment. Is it conceivable that in that short space of time so many cases should have originated unless there were some conditions acting unfavourably on the health ? We are not prepared to state what part the pressure of accoutrements, and forced exercise under unfavourable conditions, played in the production of this lung disease, but it is only reasonable to believe it had some share. II. —What are the Causes of this Excess of Heart and Lung Disease? We now proceed to the second part of the inquiry, There being evidently a great number of heart and lung diseases among soldiers, probably more than among civilians, and such cases being apparently in greater relative amount among young soldiers, what are the causes of such prevalence ? As respects heart disease, the question has been carefully examined by Professor Maclean, a copy of whose lecture at the Royal United Service Institution we annex (see Appendix 2). After examining into the various possible causes, Dr. Maclean concludes that the most probable reason is that the young soldier is called upon to make much exertion under unfavourable conditions. During exertion, anything which constricts the lungs, or impedes the action of the heart, tends to produce disease of those organs, and especially so at an early age, when the bones and cartilages are not matured and yield when pressure is made upon them. The young soldier of 18 or 20 years of age is but imperfectly grown and developed ; many of the bones are not united, and an amount of pressure which would be unfelt by the older man,'may be very injurious to him. In order to see if the recruit is overworked, Major General Rumley obtained returns from all the depot battalions, showing the amount of drill to which the recruit is subject. We haye prepared an abstract of these documents (see Appendix 3). From these returns it would appear that the system of recruit drill is nearly uniform at the several depots. About three hours a day are occupied in drill, and this is divided into three periods, viz., one hour from half-past 8 to half-past 9; again from half-past 10 to half-pa-t 11, from 11 to 12, and again from 2 to 3 or from 2*30 to 3'30. In one or two cases the periods are longer, but in no case exceed four hours. The knapsacks are worn in most cases only during the last weeks of drill, and then usually only for an hour daily. The drill extends over a period of about two months, when the recruit goes to rifle drill. During rifle drill it appears that knapsacks are generally worn, and from this time the pack is carried by the young as by the older soldiers. In