A Letter to the Right Honourable, the Secretary at War, on Sickness and Mortality in the West Indies

This 1839 work examines the problems of disease in the army in the West Indies, and suggests methods for improvement.

This 1839 pamphlet by Sir Andrew Halliday on the poor state of health of the British Army in the West Indies argues that many lives could be saved if the local knowledge and advice of experienced medical authorities was given greater consideration by the military.Sir Andrew Halliday (1782–1839) served as a surgeon in the Peninsular War, and then as a royal physician. In 1832 he was appointed Inspector of Hospitals in the West Indies until ill-health forced his return to Scotland. This 1839 pamphlet contains his recommendations to the Secretary of War, concerning the major losses suffered by the army in the West Indies due to illness. It was written in response to the Tulloch report presented to Parliament on the subject the previous year. This showed that the average death rate for soldiers there was almost six times higher than those in Britain, and in some islands considerably higher, due to dysentery, yellow fever and malaria. Halliday believed that many of these deaths were preventable, if medical advice was consulted on the siting of barracks, the daily regimes within them, and sanitation, and if doctors had the authority to implement changes.