Before bringing to your notice the short memorandum which I have prepared on the subject of mortality in the tropics, I feel that I owe the Faculty an apology for submitting to them so fragmentary a paper as the present.

I had hoped, by recapitulating the history of mortality statistics in India and some other tropical countries from the earliest date at which these became available, to have traced down to the present day the progress that has been made and the lives which have been saved in consequence of improved manner of living and enlarged knowledge and better treatment of disease; but other duties intervened which prevented my fulfilling my purpose, and my intended paper has contracted into these few notes exhibiting the experience of my own company.