Hospital
drainage.
Hospital
water-supply.
Water
-supply.
Duties,
122
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
Hospital drainage.—The drainage is unsatisfactory, in fact nil.
Hospital water-supply.—The water is supplied from the adjoining barrack wells.
General
conclusions.
Sanitary
condition of
lines.
General conclusions.—During the past year the health of the regiment has been very
indifferent. This is to be attributed probably in some degree to the effects of climate, but
principally to overwork combined with insufficient supply of nutritive food. Syphilis has also
been the cause of a good deal of inefficiency.
The sanitary condition of the neighborhood of the barracks and hospital is on the whole
good. The drainage of the neighborhood is the point which requires being attended to more
than anything else. The barrack latrines should be entirely renewed, and built on a better plan.
Those at present in use are old, and it is found impossible to keep them clean as the woodwork
is saturated with liquid excreta. A new hospital or a considerable addition to the present one is
urgently called for.
Deputy Surgeon-General H. R. Oswald, M.D., inspected this corps on the 10th
and 11th December 1877 and reports as follows :—
Sanitary condition of lines.—With the exception. of the drummer's rooms, the barracks
are all very clean and neat. There are eight blocks of barracks, four on each side of the high
road, all exactly alike. Ventilation is effected by ten doors, four on either side, and one at
each end. Each block is divided into four compartments which communicate with each other
by doors. The site is flat and not favorable to drainage. There are superficial earth drains,
but much of the water must be absorbed.
Water-supply from five wells of pretty good quality and abundant, except in the hot
season when the supply is scanty. Filters are not used.
Duties of the men have been in the opinion of the Surgeon of the Regiment too onerous
and prejudicial to health. The guard duties are very heavy, and the number of nights in bed
was as low as 2 in 3. The men also seem to have too many drills to allow of needful rest.
Much of the sickness is ascribed to the severity of the duties.
Conservancy.
Conservancy is good. All round and underneath the barracks the ground is in excellent
order.
Hospital.
Principal
diseases.
Hospital has been recently whitewashed inside, and is clean and in good order. It is
120' x 120' x 13' to top of wall plate = 2,400 square feet and 34,800 cubic feet, giving accom-
modation for 24 patients only ; as the number of sick has always been much in excess of this
it has been found necessary to utilise the space underneath the ward which is only about 6 feet
high for the treatment of the sick during the rains, a purpose for which it is unsuitable ; but
there was no alternative since the rains ceased. A number of tents have been pitched. Over-
crowding has thus been avoided as much as possible. A new hospital on the plan of the Native
hospital at Thayetmyo is much required, as the present one will never likely accommodate all
the sick of the Native regiment here, and it is moreover an old building. The site is flat and
unfavorable to drainage ; there is a shallow drain surrounding the building, but the storm water
mostly sinks into the ground which from the nature of the soil it does pretty quickly.
Principal diseases.— The principal causes of inefficiency during the year have been, first,
venereal affections ; second, fevers mostly of an intermittent type ; third, dysentery and other
bowel complaints ; fourth, general debility, the result in a great measure of the three preceding ;
fifth, skin diseases, such as itch and ring-worm which the sepoys attribute to the water, but which
are more probably due to a cachectic condition of the system induced by other debilitating causes.
The numerous cases of dysentery may be attributed to overwork, exposure to cold and damp,
an insufficiency of nitrogenous food and bad cooking, the men often being too fatigued to set
about cooking their food or not getting it till a late hour.
SAUGOR CIRCLE.
Average strength...
...
...
...
...
... 2,418
Do. do. present
...
...
...
...
... . . .
. . . 2,269
Total admissions
...
...
...
...
...
... 2,077
Daily sick
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
. . . 61
Deaths in hospital
...
...
...
...
. . .
. . .
. . . 25
Do. out of do.
...
...
...
...
...
...
. . . 8
. . . P e n s i o n e d
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
87
Sick leave
...
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
8