La mortalité (hors combat) des militaires français à la fin du XVIIIe et au début du XIXe siècles
The death rate (other than battledeaths) of French Servicemen at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries Jacques Houd aille The army muster-rolls date back to 1716 but their quality is very inconsistent. To appraise the death rate of the French services excluding violent deaths in battle, we selected three particularly reliable sources: the rolls of the Ile de France regiment, to-day Mauritius, (1768 to 1795), three provincial regiments (1786 to 1792) and a series of coastguard gunner battalions of the early 19th. century. Table 1 shows the breakdown of soldiers of the Ile de France regiment by their ultimate fate. More than a quarter died in military service, but very few in battle. Combining those who died in battle (or from wounds) and those sentenced to death, we can construct the "life-table" for deaths from natural causes of the soldiers of this regiment (table 2) for the period 1 766- 1784. The rates obtained are compared with the male death rate for the whole of France at the same time: the military death rate (outside battle) is 3.3 times higher. In the period 1785-1796, the excess was a little less: 2.6 (table 3). This higher death rate may thus be ascribed to the living conditions specific to soldiers, and especially the diseases contracted during various compaigns or postings. In a case of the' regiments of Burgundy, Enghien and Barrois (table 4) and the coastguard gunners (table 6) the excess death rate is lower: 2.1 for the former and 1.4 for the latter. The levels vary, however, a great deal from one regiment or port to another (tables 5 and 7). For the period under consideration it would appear that the soldiers were hardly a select group on joining up, nor were they frequently invalided out for medical reasons unlike to-day (when the death rate of civilians exceeds that of the military, even when the latter are engaged in fighting. . .),
Year of publication: |
1977
|
---|---|
Authors: | Houdaille, J. |
Published in: |
Population (french edition). - Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED). - Vol. 32.1977, 1, p. 481-497
|
Publisher: |
Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED) |
Saved in:
freely available
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
La fécondité en Australie. Tendances récentes
Houdaille, J., (1971)
-
Houdaille, J., (1971)
-
Quelques problèmes démographiques dans la République de Panama
Houdaille, J., (1977)
- More ...