Part III]
DISPENSARIES IN OUDH.
113
tomy 26 cases; amputations 18; excision of tumours 12; dislocations re-
duced 9; phymosis 7; paracentesis abdominalis 9; excision of eyeball 1; ope-
ration on the eye 1. Death is mentioned in one of the cases of lithotomy,
as also is a fatal event noted in one case of amputation of the thigh, in one case of
excision of a tumour, and in a case of perineal section accompanied by extra-
vasation of urine.
With the exception of this very brief and imperfect information, the
report contains nothing further bearing on the point.
Diseases treated.
Of the diseases treated, skin-diseases were the most numerous and formed
18 per cent. of the total; fevers formed 15 per cent.; diseases of the abdomen
(whatever that may mean) gave 11 per cent. Diarrhœea, dysentery and eye.
affections each gave about 3.5 per cent. and rheumatism 7 per cent.
Medical pupils.
The ignorance and inefficiency of the native medical pupils attached to
the dispensaries are commented upon in several parts of the report. In very
few instances does it appear that the importance of supervising the conduct,
discipline and education of these youths has been kept fully before the minds of
superintendents of dispensaries. Deputy Surgeon-General H. M. Cannon, M. B.,
of the Lucknow circle, is strongly of opinion that it is a great mistake
to post those who are inhabitants of Lucknow and its neighbourhood to the
city hospital; indeed, he thinks they should in all cases be sent to a distance
from their homes, and he advocates their being sent to the military hospitals
where they are more likely to be taught discipline.
Public health.
Concerning the public health, there are a few isolated sentences in the
report bearing upon the subject. Malarial fevers are stated to have been very
prevalent in the Kheri district.
Cholera in Khori,
87 per cent, of the entire number of deaths are attributed to it. Cholera was present
in the district from March to September; 1,073 persons were attacked by the disease, and
510 died, or under 50 per cent., so that the epidemic cannot be considered to have been a very
severe one.
Fevers were not so numerous as in the previous year in Hardui. The
Superintendent of the Rai Bareilly dispensary writes :—
in Hurdui,
An epidemic of cholera raged in the district during the last year and extended to the
town from villages 12 and 16 miles south-east in the middle of July. The disease was of a
virulent type and occasioned 230 deaths in 368 attacks during July and August. The per-
centage of deaths to attacks was 60.50, and to population 3.24.
The civil surgeon of Pratabgurh reports—
in Pertabgurh,
That the year under report was not so unhealthy as 1872. Cholera as reported by the
police gave only 256 deaths in the district spread over eight months, whereas in 1872 the
number of deaths was stated to be 6,129.
Small-pox.
Small-pox was rather prevalent in the town and neighbourhood of Tanda
in Fyzabad towards the commencement of the hot weather, but it disappeared
soon, and there were a few cases of cholera, but on the whole the district was
unusually healthy. Writing of the Akbarpur branch dispensary in Fyzabad,
Dr. J. Cameron says :—
With the exception of small-pox, which prevailed in the first six months of the year,
the population in this part of the district was free from epidemic disease. Ague appears
to be at all seasons prevalent, owing no doubt to the imperfect state of the drainage of the
country in this direction. The Tonse and Murha rivers, which are here the natural drains,
overflow their channels in the rains, and wide tracts of low-lying lands become converted
into immense jheels from which the water can escape only by evaporation.
Goitre.
In the Gonda district, goitre prevails extensively.
Hypodermic injection
of chloral in cholera.
A report by Dr. Higginson, civil surgeon of Kheri, upon the treatment of
cholera by the hypodermic injection of chloral, is embodied in the provincial
report, but need not be reproduced. Suffice it to say, that he met with the
most extraordinary success in a village close to the sudder station. Dr
McRedie of the Hardui district employed the remedy by the mouth in
ordinary doses, but did not appear to derive much benefit from its employment.
A note from Surgeon Hall, R. A., is appended to Dr. Higginson's report, and
from it it appears that the following is the method of treatment advocated :—
The following is the plan of treatment that I recommend for the three stages of
cholera. During the premonitory diarrhœa, (which is almost always painless) (30) thirty
drops of diluted sulphuric acid in a large wine-glassfull of strong camphor water every
d d