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In accordance with the usual rule, the men of the Fort Battery, quartered in or
near the city, have suffered a greatest ratio from disease, probably contracted from
city women who are not registered, now that the City Lock Hospital has been abol-
ished. All the city women who presented themselves for registration in canton-
ments were found seriously diseased.
The men of the Artillery and 2-14th Infantry suffered in next highest proportion.
They occupied barracks near to the race-course and neighbouring cultivated land,
favourite hunting gounds of unlicensed women, and places very difficult of police
control.
The Cavalry, Horse Artillery, and 75th Regiment, greatly reduced their percent-
age of disease, a very creditable result, due to the vigilance of Commanding Officers.
As the result of experience, it appears that the worst cases of disease occur
in soldiers who have contracted disease from unregistered women which is in ac-
cordance with expectation, as the worst cases of disease treated in the lock hospital
occur in unregistered women.
The real cause of success in lock hospital management is incessant, vigilant,
ubiquitious, police supervision over every class of women who can come in contact
with the soldier. To secure this supervision money must be spent, and it will be bet-
ter to spend it on measures of repression than for the treatment and support of the
soldiers in hospital.
All authorities now agree in the opinion that unlicensed prostitution is the cause
of prevalent disease ; and all forces should unite in suppressing this cause. And
chiefly regimental and general police should work together for the prevention of
illicit prostitution. A difficult, but not impossible, matter, even in the Lucknow
Cantonment, with its numerous ravines, by-paths, and groves of trees.
The Medical Officer again urges the necessity of separating cases of local ve-
nereal, ulcer, from cases of primary syphilis in the returns.
The first is the more common form of disease, and its return as primary syphi-
lis is a great mistake, misleading the authorities as to the nature of the diseases pre-
valent, for local venereal ulcer is a much less serious complaint than primary syphilis.
29. The Cantonment Magistrate reports that only women charged on good
grounds with unlicensed prostitution with soldiers were sent for medical examination.
He is of opinion that most of the disease affecting the soldiers results from their
intercourse with unlicensed women.
The registration is very incomplete, and will so remain until rules sent up for
sanction in 1877 are sanctioned by the Government of India. The women, against
whom these rules would operate, cause disease to the soldiers and supply them with
liquor.
The good effected at Lucknow, as against venereal prevalence, -has been due
chiefly to the energy of the medical officer, who has had charge of the hospital for
many years.
The Cantonment Magistrate deprecates the idea of abolishing lock hospitals,
because figures may show that venereal disease has been in no way diminished amongst
the soldiers since the hospitals were established. He thinks that before all are
abolished the three that have shown the best results should be closed for three or four
years. He is certain that the resulting increase and severity of the disease recorded
in the three selected stations, during those years, would prove the disadvantage of
abolishing the lock hospitals.
30. The Deputy Surgeon-General, Indian Medical Department, thinks that pro-
miscuous intercourse of the sexes will assuredly cause venereal disease, and that the
medical officer is too sanguine as to the efficacy of lock hospital management to
check such disease.
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