10
MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 8TH SEPTEMBER 1879, No. 5000.
The death-rate, 74 per mille, exhibits an increase of 65 only. Of cases returned
under this head, 1,592 were ague and 175 remittent fever. There were eight deaths
against one in 1877 ; all were due to remittent fever. Compared with 1877 all circles
show an increase, particularly the Presidency Circle, where the admission ratio,
306.24 per mille, indicates an increase of 249.18 per mille of strength. These
fevers were most prevalent at Bellary, where in 2/13th Regiment 416 admissions
were recorded from them against 75 in the Infantry Regiment located there in
1877. In the Royal Artillery, Bellary, the admissions under this head amounted
to 117 against 28 in the year preceding. The causes to which this prevalence
is attributed have been enumerated in the preceding paragraph. In the
Hyderabad Circle this class of fevers prevailed most in the Royal Artillery and
2/16th Regiment, Secunderabad, and in the 33rd Regiment, Kamptee. The bulk
of the cases of ague recorded in the Royal Artillery, Secunderabad, occurred
in 14/8th Brigade located in a mud fort. They occurred chiefly during the
prevalence of the south-west monsoon in September, October and November,
and were attributed mainly to the close proximity of the barracks to a large
stretch of swampy ground lying immediately to windward. The cases were mild
and were chiefly of the quotidian type. Of the cases recorded in 2/16th Regiment
it is remarked : "relapses were frequent, so that the number of admissions
includes many re-admissions." They were attributed to malarious emanations
from wet ground in the vicinity.
Enteric fever, so-called, shows a very decided reduction as compared with
the year preceding, the admission ratio for the command, 64 per mille, showing
a reduction of 5.26 per mille. Seven cases and five deaths were recorded against
65 cases and 22 deaths in 1877. A good deal of this decrease is probably due
simply to a change in nomenclature, diseases returned as enteric fever in 1877
being classed under the heads of simple continued and remittent fever in 1878.
The result of personal inquiries made by me only tends to strengthen the opinions
expressed in my first special report on this disease, viz., that so-called enteric
fever, due to pythogenic or filth causes, does not exist among British troops in
this command ; that the cases of late years designated as of enteric or typhoid
fever are in their actual nature such as were formerly looked upon as induced by
endemic and climatorial influences acting upon recent arrivals and modified by
individual temperament, constitution and habits, these terms being applied in a
specific sense on the one hand as indicative of a particular complication, on the
other of a condition of the general state of fever. The cases recorded as of this
disease were confined during 1878 entirely to the Hyderabad Circle, their distri--
bution being as follows :—
TABLE showing the Number of Admissions and Deaths from Enteric Fever in 1878 by Stations
and Circles.
Circles and Stations.
A v e r a g e s t r e n g t h .
Admissions for Enteric Fever.
Total.
Deaths.
January.
February.
March.
April. May. June. July.
August.
Sept ember .
Oct ober.
November . De c e mb e r .
N u m b e r A d m i t t e d .
R a t i o p e r 1 , 0 0 0 o f S t r e n g t h .
N u m b e r D i e d .
R a t i o
p e r 1 , 0 0 0
o f S t r e n g t h .
Mysore ...
Bangalore
1 6 1 0
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .
. . .
1
0.62
Hyderabad.
Secunderabad
2471
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . .
. . . 2
1 . . .
. . .
3
1.21
3
1.21
Kamptee
. . .
845 . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . 1 1 . . .
. . .
4
4.73
1
1.18