[ADS- L] Ev id ence for DECIMATE   ( 'one in ten')

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Wed Jan 9 16:58:06 UTC 2008


A little late, maybe, but pretty explicit:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pFRNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=%22decimated+that+is%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0

1884: <<It is accounted a terrible slaughter when an army is
decimated, that is, one out of ten killed, yet in the case cited the
city is more than decimated every year by disease, ....>>

Reference is to a high cholera death rate (12% per year) in a South
American city.

-- Doug Wilson


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