13 .
CHAPTER m.
The exciting causes of the disease next demand attention, and their
consideration in reality opens up the entire question of the sanitary conditions
which affect the soldier from the time he leaves England, as "it is necessary
to weigh the circumstances under which he is placed and the influences which
surround him, such as the climate, his age, service, duties, habits, water-supply,
food and beverages, state of barrack and hospital accommodation as regards site,
construction, &c., as well as the state of surface and sub-soil drainage, latrines,
conservancy, bazars, &c.
The opening of the Suez Canal and the substitution of the Bed Sea route
for the longer voyage round the Cape has been attended with a certain
amount of increased risk to the young soldier consequent on the more rapi d
transition from a cold to a hot climate.
The soldier arrives in India during the cold weather and is at once sent up-
country by troop train to DevJáli and thence to his destination wherever it may
be. Until 23rd April 1880 troops from England were disembarked at the Car-
nac Bandar,-close to the point of discharge into the harbour of all the night-soil of
Bombay. This place has been most wisely given up, and since September 1880
all the troops entering or leaving India disembark or embark at the Sassoon
Dock at Lower Colaba, where the sanitary arrangements for their convenience
are carefully and efficiently supervised. I have no doubt that this change has
already effected great good, as formerly, immediately on landing, the troops were
at certain periods of the day exposed to a strong f secal atmosphere and always to a
more or less impure air. It is therefore in my opinion extremely probable that
in former years many of the men attacked by enteric fever shortly after
arriving at their station up-country contracted the disease at the Carnac Bandar.
Some of the stations in the Bombay Presidency, such as Nasirabad, Neemuch,
Mount Abu, Deesa, Karachi and Hyderabad are extra-tropical; but the
main difference is that whereas Karachi and Bombay are on the sea coast,
the remaining stations are inland. Belgaum, Kolhápur, Sátára, Poona,
Kirkee and Ahmednagar are situated on the elevated plateau of the Deccan
and Mhow, Indore, Neemuch, Nasirabad andMount Abu on the highlands of Málwa
and Rájputána, whilst Deesa, Ahmedabad Baroda and Hyderabad are on
plains which are but slightly raised above the level of the sea.
Climate.
The following extracts from the meteorology of the Bombay Presidency by
Mr. Charles Chambers, F.R.S., Meteorological Reporter to Government for
Western India, give an instructive resume of the principal points regarding
climate :—
" Barometric Pressure.
" The mean barometric pressure is shown for the stations of Belgaum, Poona, Bombay,
Deesa and Karachi in the following table :—
Stations.
Annual mean
Belgaum.
27-323
Poona.
27-856
Bombay.
29-839
Deesa.
29-507
Karachi,
29-874
Annual Variation.
" In the next table we give excesses, for each station, of the mean barometric pressure
in the several months above the mean of the year ; first, as deduced from observations taken
daily at the hours 9-30 A.M, and 3-30 P.M. and secondly, after correction for the diurnal
inequality at those hours.
B 357—4