66
The above tables show how extremely unhealthy the troops at Baroda have
been, as this great amount of sickness has not been due to the prevalence of
epidemic disease, but was principally caused by malarial fevers.
There were during the six years only two deaths from cholera. In 1877 there
were two admissions and one death from enteric fever among the. Artillery and two
admissions, one of which proved fatal, among the Infantry. The Medical Officer
says :—" One enteric fever case was caused by the foul atmosphere in which its
subject was employed in the Commissariat Bakery". This building has since been
vacated. A case of enteric fever occurred in the battery in 1878, but the man
recovered, and since that date there has been no fresh case.
The very high ratio from dysentery and diarrhœa among the Infantry is very
noticeable, and the enormously high admission rate from all causes tells its own
tale.
AHMEDABAD.
This is another station in Gujarát which is notoriously insalubrious. In
fact after Neemuch it is the most unhealthy station in the Bombay Command,
During the 10 years, 1870—79, it had the highest admission rate for apoplexy
of all the stations and an abnormally high one for cholera, enteric fever,
malarial fevers, and diarrhoea. It stands next to Neemuch both as regards the
highest admission rate from all causes and in respect to the highest death rate.
I cannot help regretting that the money expended in building new barracks
at this intensely malarious station was not reserved for the establishment of a
new cantonment on the Abu range. I am informed that it has been suggested
to remove the head quarters of the Northern Division to Deesa, which is certainly
a healthier station.
The camp at Ahmedabad as well as the surrounding country is well wooded
—a condition which indicates a large amount of moisture in the sub soil. Trees
in too close proximity to buildings obstruct the circulation of air and tend to keep
the temperature at night higher than in the open.
The porosity of a sandy soil, as at Ahmedabad, exposes residents on it to
more than usual dangers if dependent on wells for their water supply, as is the
case at this station; and that the water supply has been impure is seen by the
admission rate from diarrhœa which, during the 10 years, 1870—79, attained the
enormously high rate of 107 5 per 1,000. This is the highest rate of all the
stations in the plains in India, and is only exceeded at three hill stations in
Bengal.
The surface drainage of camp until 1880 was very inadequate. Measures
have since been taken to improve it, but Ahmedabad will always remain an un-
healthy station until a new water supply is provided and until the site of
barracks, &c., is underdrained.
It is a thousand pities that the new barracks in this very malarial station
were built with solid plinths. I did my utmost, whilst acting as Sanitary Com-
missioner in 1876 77 and beginning of 1878, to get the hospital at all events
built on a raised basement and according to the principles laid down in the sugges-
tions for barracks and hospitals in India; but my proposals, after I had given over
charge of the Sanitary Commissionership, were overruled and the standard plan
was adhered to, because it was the standard plan. This rigid adherence to the
standard plan has added greatly to the liability to disease.
The disease statistics for Artillery and Infantry since 1877 are given in the
following tables. During these six years there were no cases of enteric fever
admitted among the Artillery, but there had been two cases in the head quarters
of the F/4 Royal Artillery in 1876.
In the Infantry one admission, which proved fatal, occurred in 1877 in the
Detachment of the 2/15th Regiment.
In the following year, 1878, three
admissions, two of which terminated fatally, took place in the Detachment. No
cause could be assigned for the appearance of the disease. It is also interesting
to note that in April of 1878 five admissions, two of which proved fatal, took
place in the 1st Grenadiers Native Infantry, which will be referred to in the next
chapter.