9
PRESIDENCY DIVISION, ADEN, AND BOMBAY MARINE.
huts purified and white-washed, fires were burnt to windward of the lines, and the same
measure was carried out in the left wing. Quarantine was established as much as possible; but
this was, of course, most imperfect : the lines are situated close upon the main road of the
traffic, and if men were disposed they could evade the picquet, and get into the city, as in fact
they did, for I frequently saw them there. However, what promised at first to be a formidable
epidemic gradually subsided. After these measures were adopted, the most noticeable feature
about this epidemic was the great mortality of the men compared to the women and children ;
it is, I think, unusual. I have always observed in former epidemics the reverse to be the case.
How far this has been influenced by the habits of the men, as noticed in my remarks on dysen-
tery and diarrhœa, is a problem. I am very strongly of an opinion in favour of it, for this
reason : the men, women, and children were all exposed to the same conditions, they all came for
treatment in all the different stages of the disease, many in a state of complete collapse. The
men were doing no work whatever, but the usual guards, so that it is difficult to arrive at any
other conclusion than that there must be some especial cause for the great contrast. One man
was seized with cholera on the march to Domus in February, and died in a few hours ; the
other occurred in June, and was cured.
As regards the treatment of this disease, I have nothing new to offer. I think with natives
much may be done after all choleraic symptoms have subsided, and the secretions of bile and
urine restored by the judicious use of nourishment and stimulants. A native has no idea above
conjee in cases of illness, and I feel confident I saved many of the women and children by the
judicious use of mist vin gallici made with the whole egg, milk, and arrack, who, if left to
their own people, would have succumbed to the after effects. What I mean by the judicious use
is that, of course, the medical officer has to look out for secondary fever. Of this, however, I had
not one case.
19. Vaccination has been successfully carried on ; the lymph good. Re-vaccination has
been performed on all unsuccessful cases with, for the most part,
unsuccessful results.
Vaccination and re-vaccination.
General health and physique of
the men.
20. Taking the regiment bodily, I think the general
health and physique of the men fair.
21. Considering the deaths that have occurred from all causes in and out of hospital in
Resumé of the whole.
the regiment during the year, viz., 20, the mortality has been
greatly above the average ; the percentage of death has been
3 . 1 per cent. The cause of this must be attributed to the following reasons :—
l st.—The year 1876 has been, I believe, in most parts of the country an unhealthy year.
2 nd.—The facilities of obtaining drink at Surat are great, and the liquor sold is most
unwholesome.
3rd .—The change from a station like Poona, where the climate is invigorating, to a
station like Surat, where for eight months in the year the climate is most enervating,
must be very trying to some constitutions. These causes, added to the well-known
malarious nature of the locality and the inferior quality of the water, have all combined
to swell both admissions to hospital, and the death-rate.
How often the pupils have been
taught.
22. The education of the pupils has been attended to.
REMARKS BY DEPUTY SURGEON-GENERAL W. G. HUNTER, M.D.
I inspected the hospital and lines of H. M.'s 17th Regiment N. I. at Surat on 26th
October 1876. The Medical Officer, Surgeon-Major G. F. H. Brown, was absent on a month's
privilege leave, his duties being performed by Surgeon-Major Adey, the Civil Surgeon.
The conservancy of the hospital and lines was good. The regiment since its arrival in
December 1875 from Poona, had suffered a good deal from malarial fevers, and to some extent
from cholera. The former was attributed to an overflow of the river Tapti, in September,
which inundated the lines and surrounding country. The latter spread from the city, made its
appearance on 4th April, and ceased on 28th idem, during which time (24 days) 25 persons
were attacked and 8 died, 5 being sepoys, 2 women, and 1 child.
The hospital establishment was favourably reported on.
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