LOCK HOSPITALS, MADRAS PRESIDENCY.
29
Extract from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital, Thayetmyo,
by Surgeon OSWALD BAKER.
The daily average strength of the European garrison for the past year, as nearly as it can
be calculated from the returns received, was of Infantry 407 and Artillery 152, or a total
average force of 559 men. Amongst this force there were 64 cases of venereal disease, being
11.4 per cent. of average strength; but in order to shew the degree in which disease among
these European troops has originated locally—and this circumstance alone can concern the
authorities here charged with the administration of the Act—it is necessary to eliminate all
cases of venereal which have been acquired elsewhere. I get this number from officers in
medical charge of the men who were diseased, in the returns they furnish me with. There
is no doubt in the Medical Officers' minds in this matter ; in 23 instances they distinctly assert
that the sufferers have contracted their diseases away from Thayetymo.
Statement showing the extent and nature of the Venereal Diseases from which the European
Troops in Thayetmyo suffered during the year 1877.
Regiments.
Period of Occupation.
Average Strength
during Period
of Occupation.
Nature of Admissions from
Venereal Diseases during
Period of Occupation.
Ratio of Admis
-sions per 1,000 of
Average Strength
114.
Her Majesty's 89th
and 44th Regi-
ments of Euro-
pean Infantry.
Her Majesty's 89th
European Infantry
from January to
December 1877.
Her Majesty's
89th European
Infantry, 422.
Syphilis, primary 24 Ratio of ad-
missions per
1,000 from
diseases con-
tracted local-
ly, 64.
Do. secon-
dary ...
• ...
3
Her Majesty's
44th Euro-
pean Infantry,
337½.
Gonorrhœa
... 35
Two Brigades of
Artillery.
Her Majesty's 44th
during December
1877, and Artillery
throughout the year
with a relief in
April.
Epididymitis ...
•
2
Royal Artillery,
152.
•
Total ... 64
There is no Cantonment Sub-Committee to superintend the administration of the Contagi-
ous Diseases' Act. The Cantonment Magistrate and Surgeon in charge of the hospital are the
officials responsible for its efficient working. Very valuable assistance is frequently rendered by
the officers in medical charge of the troops by reporting specially whenever diseases are
contracted from unregistered prostitutes.
When prostitutes are placed on the register, they at once take up their abode in a certain
double row of houses in the town, which is especially and well recognized as the prostitutes
quarter ; and this being the case, it is clearly apparent that no unlicensed prostitution can go on
in this particular locality.
No special means for the suppression of unlicensed prostitution have been taken during
the past year. The officers in medical charge of the soldiers have been active in ascertaining
from the men who have acquired disease whence they contracted, and in three instances were
successful in bringing before the authorities unregistered women who, on examination, were
found to be suffering.
An improvement has been effected in the registration of prostitutes over the preceding
year, but it would be idle to ignore the inefficiency of the system when men have so frequently
acquired venereal disease from unlicensed women. A reliable record of Burmese women who
prostitute themselves in the open manner that the girls living in the prostitutes' quarter of the
town do, is probably to be found in the statements which accompany this report, but the difficulty
of registering all prostitute women among any race of people whose standard of morality is on
a par with the Burmese national code is one that remains to be overcome. The Burmese girls,
however, are not alone responsible for the contagious disease acquired by the soldiers at
Thayetmyo. The Madrassee female grass-cutters inhabiting the neighborhood of the barracks
continue to be a frightful source of evil. I cannot explain why these Madrassee women, who have
been convicted of prostitution, are not brought on and kept on the register. Of the 6 Madrassees
punished for their crimes, only 2 were subsequently enrolled as prostitutes. The class now on
the register is entirely composed of Burmese. In this district the Contagious Diseases' Act
extends over an area of 196 square miles, and the population within this area is 39,000. The
average number of prostitutes on the register during the past year was 24.9, so that the
regis-tered prostitutes to the total population stood in the proportion of 1 to 1,600. This calculation
however, is not deserving of serious reflection, for the inhabitants it has reference to are mostly
Burmese, and an opinion expressed in a previous report that for the Burmese race no Contagious
Diseases' Act is necessary, remains with me a very firm impression.
The Burmese themselves comparatively seldom make use of prostitutes ; the registered
girls, who seldom show a desire to conceal to what classes their habitual supporters belong,
tell you that this is so.
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