SIR HENRY FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to an article, which appeared recently in The United Service Guzette, on the subject of Phthisis in the Army; and, whether the statistics quoted in that article, of the serious loses to the Army every year caused by that disease are correct; and, if so, what steps have been taken to test the value of the alleged discovery of a successful scientific treatment of this most fatal disease?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONAssuming that the article referred to is one which appeared in The United Service Gazette of the 28th of February last, I have to say that the figures quoted are individually accurate. The measure, however, of the annual loss from phthisis is the deaths plus the discharges from that disease; whereas the writer has added the invaliding home, which is, in effect, taking the invalided soldiers twice over. Regrettable as is the loss to the Army from phthisis, there is no proof given that the loss of life would be materially less among a body 817 of equal strength of men in other employment, drawn from the same class, and at the same ages. The ages for military employment are those at which consumption is ordinarily the most fatal. The Army Medical Staff are only too glad to adopt every measure of proved efficacy in combating this terrible disease; but the nature of the remedy referred to in the newspaper article under consideration is not stated specifically enough to enable the authorities to say whether it has been tried, or should be tried.