Clinate of
he station.
Diseases of
the district.
Position of
barracke.
NORTHERN DISTRICT.
29
The medical officers at Sumbulpore, Cuttack, Berhampore, Vizagapatam and Vizia-
nagrum reiterate their complaints of defects in the lines, in which the huts are to a great
extent overcrowded, and their drainage imperfect and inefficient. Surgeon Boalth deprecates
any attempt to improve the present lines as certain to be futile, but urges their removal to a
different and eligible locality.
The desolation wrought by last cyclone in the lines of the 7th Regiment N. I. at
Vizagapatam presented a good but neglected opportunity for their removal to another and
better site, so that they continue where they were.
Surgeon Dalgairns reports that the hospital of the European Artillery Veteran Company
at Vizagapatam is at last undergoing much and long-needed repairs ; while Surgeon Boalth, in
Berhampore, intimates that trenches are being excavated for the foundations of a new, in lien
of the former small and ill-ventilated, latrine.
Surgeon-Major Parker at Cuttack solicits attention to the imperfect, because insufficient,
accommodation of the hospital for the sick of a whole regiment, and wisely recommends filling
up two tanks in front of the hospital with earth.
2 nd Regiment Native Infantry.
STATION—HEAD QUARTERS AND RIGHT WING, BERHAMPORE.
Arrived from Waltair, 9th January 1873.
STATION—LEFT WING, SUMBULPORE.
Average strength
...
...
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
689
Do.
do.
present
...
...
...
...
. . .
. . .
...
673
Admissions
. . .
...
...
...
...
. . .
...
. . .
428
Daily sick
...
...
. . .
. . .
. . .
...
...
...
14
Deaths in hospital
...
...
...
...
...
. . .
...
...
9
Do. out of do.
...
...
...
...
. . .
...
. . .
...
4
Pensioned
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
...
23
Sick leave
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
11
The following return shows the rates of sickness, deaths, and invaliding, as
contrasted with previous years :—
Years.
Stations.
Rate per Cent. of
Average Strength Present.
Average Strength.
Admissions. Daily Sick. All Deaths. Pensioned. Sick Leave.
1873 ...
... Berhampore ...
...
95.79
2.90
.28
.14
.28
1874 ...
...
Do.
...
...
81.87
3.07
2.02
4.47
.86
1875 ...
...
Do.
...
...
80.29
2.66
2.13
3.42
.57
Average ... . 85.98
2.87
1.47
2.67
.57
1876 ...
... Berhampore ...
...
63.59
2.08
1.88
3.33
1.59
Surgeon W.H. Boalth was in medical charge of the Head-quarters and Right
Wing during the year, and reports as follows :—
Climate of the station. —Climate has not presented any very unusual variations. The rail
was on the whole below the average.
Diseases of the district .—The station being surrounded by extensive paddy-fields, and
bounded on all sides, except on the south, at various distances by hills covered with low jungle
fever of a malarious type, but of a mild character, is the prevailing disease of the station. Cholera
is almost annually imported by pilgrims from Pooree.
Position of barracks .—The sepoys' lines are continuous with houses occupied by the civi
population. The lines are situated in low ground. The drainage of part of the cantonment
occupied by the civil population passes by and through the lines into some paddy-fields
couple of hundred yards from the lines. The subsoil water in the site occupied by the lines
is within a couple of feet of the .surface of the ground during the rains, and in one portion of the
8