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13. The Medical Officer reports favourably as regards the hospital accommodation.
Water-supply, sanitation, and ventilation have been well cared for during the past
year.
Three separate Medical Officers have held charge of the hospital at different
periods of the year.
Amongst the European troops there has been a considerable increase of venereal
disease, as compared with the prevalence of 1882. And of this disease the largest pro-
portion must have been contracted from unlicensed women: for of 145 instances in
which the registered women were reported by soldiers as having communicated
disease, in only 24 could disease be detected in the accused woman.
The sub-committee assembled monthly for the transaction of business. The
efforts made to check unlicensed prostitution met with little success. A military police,
consisting of from 14 to 18 soldiers, gave little assistance in preventing it, or in arrest-
ing the offending women, who do not live in the cantonment bazars, but lurk about the
outskirts of cantonments and the neighbourhood of the fort and city. Of the esti-
mated total of 1,000 prostitutes living in Agra city, only 46 were registered, and
amongst these 46 women, as many as 64 cases of venereal complaint were treated in the
year. It may therefore be assumed that a large number of the unregistered women
must be diseased. Of 38 unregistered women arrested during the year, 34 were found
to be diseased.
The cantonment registered women have been fairly regular in their attendance
for examination. But the city registered women were most irregular, as many as
691 cases of absence from the weekly inspections having been reported. Amongst
the registered women, there was increase of disease amongst those registered in the
city, but the cantonment women had less disease than last year.
The Medical Officer thinks the amount of venereal disease amongst the soldiers at
Agra might diminish if the registration included more city women, and he strongly
recommends action in that direction. The city inspection-house was given up at the
commencement of 1883, and now all registered women of the city come to the lock
hospital in cantonments for examination.
During the year of report the cantonment registered women have been provided
with suitable quarters in the sadr and regimental bazars.
14. The Cantonment Magistrate reports that the returns for the past year
compare very unfavourably with those for 1882, and of the 370 cases of
disease which occurred amongst the soldiers 42 per cent. were cases of syphilis.
This excessive prevalence of disease may have been due, in some measure, to the
arrival of a new regiment, the men of which provided 45 cases of disease in the first
month of their arrival. Also in the last three months of the year disease was un-
usually prevalent, and at that period several thousands of rupees, in re-engagement boun-
ty, were distributed amongst the soldiers. The Cantonment Committee think some of the
money may have been utilized to procure intercourse with unregistered women, who
caused the disease which prevailed.
During the months of November and December, special police were employed for
the prevention of this illicit intercourse, and 36 unlicensed women were arrested.
Upon examination, 33 were found diseased. Thirty of these women were punished by
imprisonment for eight days each.
There can be no doubt that the serious prevalence of disease reported was due to
intercourse with unregistered women: for amongst the registered women there was
less disease in 1883 than in 1882. The special police force has done much to check
this illicit prostitution and the maintenance of that force is advisable.
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