line of march, and admitted 69 to hospital in February. In September the 85th
Regiment had-50 admissions. In August and September, 23 badly diseased unregistered
women were admitted to the lock-hospital. The medical officer thinks these diseased
women caused the disease amongst the soldiers. Famine prevalence is, in the opinion
of the medical officer, answerable in great degree for the increased number of patients
requiring treatment amongst the women; Especially women brought by the police have
been found diseased. They are described as young girls, or women with babes at
the breast, not of the usual prostitute class, but women driven to prostitution through
dread of actual starvation.
13. As incidents connected with the question of regimental control as efficient
against intercourse of the soldier with unregistered women, the medical officer
records that a soldier patient in hospital effected such intercourse in the .ward, that a
soldier effected such intercourse in the dining-hall of his barrack. A third woman,
much diseased, was found in the lines, resident in a rum-barrel, and is believed to
have been a source of much mischief. A fourth woman, suffering from primary
syphilis, on being arrested by the police, stated that she had had intercourse with seven
soldiers just before discovery. Work-women, employed on the new barracks, have been
a cause of disease to the soldiers, and the number of these women was therefore reduced,
and instructions issued for their surveillance. One European woman, practising pros-
titution without license, was captured by the police and found to be diseased.
14. The medical officer-insists upon the necessity of registering all old or ugly
women applying for license as well as good-looking women, as experience seems to
show that some soldiers prefer intercourse furtively obtained, with a repulsive looking
woman to intercourse with better-looking registered women resident in the chukla.
He also urges the necessity of requiring the hearty co-operation of officers command-
ing regiments in the efficient working of the lock-hospital system. These officers are
possessed of great authority to aid the work, but it is necessary that this authority
should be exercised at all times and under all changes of command.
15. The medical officer states that in Lucknow it is the custom to arrest women
suspected of unlicensed prostitution and bring them to hospital for examination.
Good results from this plan of action, and the medical officer asks that his hands may
be strengthened by making it legal.
16. He dwells also upon the necessity of adding to the established returns a
column for the entry of cases of local venereal ulcer, a different and less dangerous
form of disease than primary syphilis, but now included in the returns with these
latter cases. The medical officer is still of opinion that the lock-hospital at Lucknow
should be a certified hospital under the Contagious. Diseases Act. He thinks either
the cantonment lock-hospital rules, Act XIV. of 1868, should be in force in the
city, but believes that the enforcement of the revised Cantonment Act would be prefer-
able to either of the above. He thinks a week's simple imprisonment is useless as a
deterrent punishment for a woman convicted of unlicensed prostitution, and would have
the severity of the punishment increased. The medical officer highly approves of a
recent general order directing that men discharged from hospital, cured of venereal
disease, be debarred from drinking beer or spirits for 14 days.
17. The Deputy Surgeon-General, British Troops , has carefully perused the
report.
18. The Deputy Surgeon-General, Indian Medical Department , thinks the entire
absence of primary and secondary syphilis amongst the registered women is very satis-
factory.
19. The Lieutenant-General Commanding Oudh Division records the perfect
attention, during the year, of administrative, executive, and commanding officers
to the very important duty of endeavouring to check venereal disease amongst the
British troops, and attributes the unsatisfactory results to the preference the soldier