Nuisance.—No nuisance was observed.
Nuisance.
Water
-supply.
Sanitary
arrangements.
Diet.
State whether
the dieting
of the troops
has been sufficiently
nutritive and
varied.
Liquors used
by the sol
-diers.
BRITISH BURMAH DIVISION.
115
Diseases of the district.— The diseases most prevalent in the district are ague, diarrhea
and dysentery, and cholera occasionally appears, and when it does so disappears quickly. It is
generally introduced by travellers by river from Upper Burmah. The Native regiments stationed
here generally suffer more or less from beri-beri and especially so during their first year of
s e r v i c e .
If regiment was on the march or shipboard.— The regiment embarked in two Indian
transport steamers on the 18th January 1878 from Bimlipatam, which is 17 miles distant
from Vizianagram, where it was stationed. It arrived on 25th and 26th January 1878 at
Rangoon and was encamped there until 1st February, when it again embarked in boats varying
from 3 to 6 tons each, and reached Tonghoo on the evening of 16th February. A detachment
from it was left on the way at Shoaygheen on 7th February.
Ventilation and drainage.— The barracks are ventilated by openings close to the floor ; also
by windows_doors and ridge ventilation. There is no specia1 system of drainage.
Diseases of
the district.
If regiment
was on the
march or
shipboard.
Ventilation
and drainage.
Water-supply.- The water was supplied from neighbouring wells, and was, it is believed,
of good quality and abundant.
Sanitary arrangements.— The sanitary arrangements were on the whole satisfactory.
Diet.—The men are provided with the rations allowed to Native troops on foreign service
No meat of any kind is provided in this diet. Vegetables were abundant and moderately
cheap ; mutton, goat, fowls and ducks are at least twice as dear as in India.
State whether the dieting of the troops has been sufficiently nutritive and varied.— The diet
supplied by Government is insufficient to maintain the men in good health. No diet which
does not contain animal food can keep men in good fighting condition. The illness among the
men may, with much reason, be attributed to their trying to live almost altogether on the
Government rations. Might not the rupee and-a-half batta, which each man is paid monthly
on foreign service, be invested with more advantage to the State in improving the existing
Government rations?
Liquors used by the soldiers.— There is no canteen in the regiment ; but as a large number
of men take stimulants, in a sanitary point of view a canteen might be established with advan
-tage. It is most desirable that men when they require it should have every opportunity of
obtaining good drink as well as good food. A canteen would also have the effect of keepin
g men in their own barracks and away from t
h e t e m p t a t i o n s o f t h e b a z a a r .
Clothing.— The clothing was well suited to the climate, but the dress of the sepoy admits
of many improvements. The new serge jacket just being issued promises to be much more
comfortable than the old tight-fitting tunic. The forage cap at present in use affords but
little protection to the head and might tacitly be replaced in time of war by the old and time
-honored puggry. The trowsers might be made much looser about the buttocks, so that the men
might squat down in them with comfort and rest themselves, as the opportunity offered, when
undergoing fatigue. Perhaps the knickerbocker breeches, found so agreeable by sporting
men, would be most likely to meet all these wants, and they would be less expensive than the
present trowsers. Sepoys never seem comfortable in boots and might be trained to do without
them without any perceptible injury to their health. Boots when worn without socks must
always cause foot-soreness on a march. Some kind of shoe might be designed to be worn only
when the feet required protection, as on walking over very rough and stony ground which very
rarely occurs in India.
Clothing.
Foot-soreness.— There were very few admissions for foot-sores caused by boots.
Foot-soreness.
Vaccination.— There has been no vaccination practically carried on during the year. A few
children and recruits who require it will be vaccinated as soon as good lymph is obtained, the
three or four supplies of lymph received since the commencement of the present cold season
having hitherto proved a failure. No small-pox occurred.
Diseases.— The diseases most prevalent were the following, which are entered in the order
of their frequency :—General debility, febricula, diarrhœa, ague, dysentery, itch, and beri
-beri. The admissions for general debility were unusually large and were to a great extent
attributable to an insufficiency of animal food. Fever, diarrhœa, and dysentery were, as a rule,
mild and yielded readily to treatment. General debility and beri-beri were the diseases which
caused most invaliding. These two diseases approached in symptoms each other so closely, that
it was often difficult to distinguish them. On the 16th February, the date of the regiment's
arrival at Tonghoo, cholera appeared in four boats, all the occupants of which were not
allowed to land on the cantonment side of the river, but were encamped in tents on the opposite
bank. The rest of the regiment went into barracks subsequently ; a cholera camp was pitched,
with all due precautions on more suitable ground, to which the men and families of the infected
boats were removed. The cholera hospital was placed at a sufficient distance from the camp.
The camp was not broken up until all signs of the disease had disappeared for some days. These
with other precautions sufficed to avert the epidemic completely from the cantonment. During
the cholera outbreak a bad and somewhat suspicious form of diarrhœa occurred amongst 10 or
11 of the men in barracks who were treated in tents adjoining the regimental hospital, but
Vaccination.
Diseases.