32
A SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
being impossible to regulate the ingress and egress of air so as to avoid draughts; obviously
objectionable in that it consists of one apartment only; and, in short, utterly unfitted as a place
for the reception and treatment of the sick.
13. A small but adequate latrine, in which the dry-earth system of conservancy is prac
-
tised, is the only building appurtenant to the hospital; the hos
-
pital water-supply is conveyed from its source, the river
Soreh, by a bheestie, specially retained for this purpose; and is
ample and fairly good.
14. The total admissions into hospital for the year amounted to 247, being 82.6 per
cent. to strength; and the average daily sick 10, being 3.17 per
cent. to strength. Most sickness prevailed in July, ague bearing
to the maximum of disease a pretty parallel degree of preva
-
lence. Dysentery has been comparatively rare in the regiment, and hepatitis by no means
common; only 1 death occurred in hospital, and was due to cholera. The percentage of
mortality to strength and treated is thus reduced to .31 and .38, respectively. Eighteen
men were invalided. To twenty men it was deemed expedient to grant sick leave of absence,
15. Ague, the principal cause of inefficiency, though amounting only to 92 cases, yet
stands pre-eminently the greatest factor in the aggregate of
disease. The physical condition of this district is not what is
generally supposed to conduce to the generation of malaria, and the comparatively mild phase
which ague assumes here would point to the impossibility of malarial virus being present in the
atmosphere in anything like a concentrated form. This is the more evident from the fact
that those who are careful to guard against sudden chills are seldom or never affected with a
paroxysm; indeed, I ascribe fully two-thirds of our sickness from ague to neglect, avoidable
or otherwise, of this precaution. I believe that were the men, on coming heated off parade, im
-
mediately to change their clothing, wiping the perspiration off their bodies, and replacing the
mounted kit by apparel equally warm, intermittent fever would become very rare amongst them.
But the meagre pay of a sowar is barely enough for his single maintenance, and it can hardly be
expected that he, having himself and, generally, a family to support on, say, on an average
eight rupees per mensem, is in constant possession of wherewithal to prevent his suffering
from the dangers incident on the sudden cooling of his body; hence he is doomed, amongst
other things, to be liable to occasional attacks of ague. And this danger is enhanced by the
remarkably dry climate of Sirur, together with its high range of temperature, which some
-
times reaches to 38 degrees in the shade. This entails a high measure of evaporation and
consequent rapidity of abstraction of heat from all objects subject to its influence. July was
the month in which most fever cases occurred. This, I think, may be accounted for by the
fact that the greater portion of the rainfall took place towards the end of the preceding
month; and as only two inches fell in July, the sun acting on the moist condition of the soil,
resulting from what fell in June, gave a greater scope for the generation of malaria, the other
necessary element for the production of which, viz., vegetable matter, being also present, in
increased quantity, as an additional result of the same cause.
Hospital conservancy and water
-
supply.
Sickness, mortality, and invalid-ing.
Principal causes of sickness.
Mortality.
16. As stated above, cholera was the cause of the only
death that occurred.
17. In June small-pox made its appearance in the adjacent town, but did not affect
the troops. In September cholera seized one of the men and
carried him off quickly; but this was the only fatal case, indeed
the only case that occurred among the fighting men, the few other persons that were affected
in the regiment being followers.
18. Amongst the children of the regiment there were in all 70 primary vaccinations,
3 of which were unsuccessful; and of re-vaccinations 24, only
2 of which produced the vaccine disease. Among the children
of followers there were 28 primary vaccinations, 1 being unsuccessful; and re-vaccinations
3, 2 of which proved failures. This makes a total of 97 successful operations for the year.
19. The general health of the regiment has been very good, it being in this respect about
the most fortunate native corps with which I am acquainted.
I am afraid that the minimum standard of chest circumfer -
ence is not at all universally attained, even by the fully-grown
sowars, and I venture to think that the present system of recruiting has not a little to do with
this defect, The system I mean is that of confining the field of enlistment to the sons of
Epidemics.
Vaccination and re-vaccination.
General health and physique of
the regiment.