10
ANNUAL REPORT ON THE
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Bellary, by
Surgeon MURPHY.
The prostitutes are under police supervision, the establishment consisting of one Head
Constable and three men. All women found prostituting are placed on the register. Every
woman has to attend hospital once a week for examination, and she is provided with a ticket,
on which the dates of inspection are entered. When a soldier is admitted to hospital with
venereal disease contracted in the station, he is taken to the bazaar, and, if able to identify the
woman, she is sent to the hospital for examination. Registration is not efficiently carried out.
No non-registered women sought admission.
There is a great prevalence of venereal disease amongst the European troops in this station..
The disease is probably contracted, in a great measure, from the unregistered prostitutes.
The women on the register are very weak, and a great many resort to prostitution as a liveli-
hood from necessity. There is no proper supervision of the houses in which the prostitutes
reside ; it would be advisable to have well-built houses set apart for them and some sanitary
supervision exercised over them. If the Acts were more fully enforced, there would be a great
diminution in the amount of venereal disease. When the bazaars were put out of bounds during
the prevalence of cholera in the month of December, there was a marked falling off in the
number of cases of venereal admitted into the Station Hospital.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Cannanore, by
Surgeon K. C. SANJANA.
The cantonment sub-committee has not been convened during the year.
One Head Constable and three Constables are detailed to this institution to carry out the
rules ; of these, one Constable attends the European Regimental Hospital daily in the mornings,
and the men admitted for venereal diseases are made to go and point out the women from whom
they contracted the disease to the Constable, who brings the so-pointed-out women to the Lock
Hospital where they are examined, and, if found diseased, are admitted into hospital for treat-
ment.
About the working of the Lock Hospital, I am of opinion that the system is a remarkably
good one and ought to be a means of preventing venereal diseases to a considerable extent, if
not effectually ; but unfortunately there is a certain source of evil which is a great cause of
failure. Here I allude to those prostitutes who carry on their profession clandestinely, and I
have reason to believe that the soldiers have recourse to this class of women more than to the
registered prostitutes. I doubt much that the police, who are entrusted to carry out the Act, do
exert themselves much as they should to detect these women.
The subjoined table shows the castes of the prostitutes on the register :—
Castes.
No.
Castes.
No.
Europeans ...
...
...
1 Tiers ...
...
... 15
East Indians ...
...
1
Muhammadans
...
...
2
Christians...
... ...
1
Dhobies
...
...
...
1
Hindus... ...
...
7 Pariahs
...
3
Nairs
...
...
...
...
1 Chucklers... ..
...
1
The attendance of the women at the periodical examination has been very satisfactory.
Only 6) were reported to the Cantonment Magistrate for non-attendance, by whom, three were
punished by imprisonment and one by fine.
There has been an increase in the number of women admitted into hospital during the year
compared with that of the previous years.
The type of gonorrhœa and leucorrhœa was mild and readily yielded to appropriate
treatment.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Kamptee by
Surgeon-Major J. M. DONNELLY.
The cantonment sub-committee met regularly once every month to exercise special super-
vision over the rules and their working.
Looking to the results of the year, the police arrangements, both municipal and regimental,
must be regarded as satisfactory. The vigilance of the former deterred, doubtless, women of
profligate character indulging their proclivities in the neighbourhood of barracks, and the
exertions of the latter succeeded in excluding females of all kinds from the precincts of the