states whether a disease is serious or trifling,
if death be near, and if death be real or only
apparent. And, to ascertain all these particulars,
it suffices to place in his ear a finger, or a toe,
of the individual to be fortune-told. He then
hears a continual buzzing sound proceeding
from the finger, interrupted at intervals by
chirpings and crackings as of sparks, which tell
the gifted listener all he requires to know. If
a dead person's finger or toe be employed, no
such oracular sounds are heard; all is still; the
corpse has no further fortune to tell.

MILITARY MISMANAGEMENT.

ABOUT seventeen years ago, I went through
a short campaign with French troops in Algeria,
an account of which was published in Household
Words.* At the period of my wanderings
in Gallic Africa I made several notes respecting
various matters connected with the troops
in that colony, and those notes I have still
by me. On referring to them, I find that
the average yearly mortality among the soldiers
during the first fifteen years from 1830 to
1845— during which the French occupied the
country, was 29.7 per thousand, inclusive of
men killed in action, or who died of wounds
received on the field of battle. This is
considerably less than half the average mortality of
our troops in India, which the late Sanitary
Commissioners' report has shown to be 67.9 per
thousand. It may fairly be asked, what causes
so vast a difference in the deaths among the
troops of the two nations serving in these
countries? India is, in truth, a hot place, but
Algeria is not a cool one; and, in India, very
much greater expense is incurred with a view
to keeping troops healthy, than Algeria. I,
who write these lines, have served upwards of
fifteen years in India, and should know
something of the climate, as well as of the working
of the military system in that land. In India,
too, we have many times lost numbers of men
in action, but our campaigns have by no means
been so frequent as those of the French in Algeria
during the first fifteen years of their occupation
of that colony. Moreover— at any rate until
the great mutiny of 1857— whenever any great
engagement took place in India, by far the most
numerous troops employed were native troops,
and consequently the number of men killed
was very much greater among them than
among English soldiers; whereas, the enormous
average mortality of 67.9 per thousand relates
only to our own countrymen. The question as
to how such mortality can be prevented— or
the inquiry as to what are the real causes of
it— is of vital importance to England, if only as a
matter of £ s. d., to say nothing of higher and
more humane considerations.

* See A Campaign with the French, in vol. xiv.,
page 49, Household Words.

No one who has served in India can say that
our soldiers die in cantonments or barracks from
want of looking after, or from over-work. The
care taken of them may be injudicious, and
may be calculated to cause the very result which
it is meant to prevent, but we must not deny
that— by the regimental authorities and medical
officers, at any rate— the health of the men is
held to be a matter of primary consideration.
During the meeting of the British Association
at Newcastle in September last, this subject was
brought under discussion, and I observe that
nearly every one of the speakers assigned a
different cause for the existing evil . Some, laid the
blame on the intemperance and vice of the men;
others, on the bad climate and the heat of the
country; many, on the " ill-ventilated barracks,
with filthy cesspools in the midst of them," in
which the men are obliged to live; but none of
these do I hold to be the reason for the enormous
number of deaths, by which a whole regiment,
a thousand strong, is completely swallowed
up in from fourteen to sixteen years. I maintain
that the intemperance of our soldiers
in India is not greater than that of French
regiments stationed in Algeria; and whatever
amount of drunkenness exists is much more
the effect of the idle life the men are forced to
lead than the cause of their sickness. That
India is by no means as healthy as Great
Britain, or that the heat of the climate is very
great, no one will deny, but neither the one
nor the other of these reasons would account for
the mortality lately brought to light by the
Sanitary Commissioners' report. In the first
place the English regiments in India are seldom
stationed in unhealthy localities, nor are the
men allowed to expose themselves to the heat
of the sun. The officers, most of whom expose
themselves very much in shooting or hunting, do
not die in any thing like the proportion of the
men. Moreover, I have always remarked that
the men are never so healthy as when on the
line of march, or in camp, when they are much
more exposed to the heat than in barracks or
quarters. Nor do I attribute so much of the evil
to faulty barracks. Although much might be
done to improve those buildings, I have seen
far worse ventilated barracks in England and
Ireland, than I have in the East; and of late
.years there has been a vast improvement in
barrack accommodation throughout India. And
I may here notice a singular fact connected with
the mortality of our troops in India, which is,
that I have remarked almost invariably that the
number of admissions to hospital are greater,
and the deaths are far more numerous, in
regiments where the commanding officers take the
greatest care to prevent men drinking more
than a certain quantity of liquor at the
regimental canteens, and where there are most
"check roll calls" in the day to keep the men
out of the sun.

What, then, can be the true cause of such
vast sickness and so great a mortality among
men who are selected from the most healthy of
their class when they leave England, and who
land in India as strong as on the day when they