OT Evidence for DECIMATE ( 'one in ten')

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/8/2008 11:52 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>1884: <<when last they were quartered here they were twice-decimated
>by cholera, and left a fifth of their regiment in the cemetery here.>>

Just a slight quarrel here -- the writer of this needs a re-education
in arithmetic.  Successive decimations leave 19 % in the cemetery.

Joel

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