8
8. Table 2 in appendix gives details as to the causes and number of deaths
in each corps and station, and Table 3 contrasts the prevalence of and mortality
from the different classes of disease in each of the administrative circles.
9. Sickness amongst officers .—In an annual average strength of 292 there were
260 admissions, four deaths, and twenty-five invalided. The admission rate was,
therefore, 890.41, the death rate 13.70, and the invaliding rate 85.62 per milk,
being an increase of 162.01 in admission rate, of 4.20 in death rate, and of 2.62 in
invaliding rate over the preceding year. The chief causes of sickness were simple
continued fever twenty-five, febricula twenty-four, ague twenty-four, contusion
twenty-five, dysentery sixteen, diarrhœa twelve, hepatitis nine, boils nine, and
general debility nine, and the deaths were as follow:
—
A Veterinary Surgeon poisoned himself with opium at Bellary. A Lieutenant,
Royal Artillery, Ordnance Department, fractured the base of his skull by a fall from
his horse at Bellary. Surgeon-Major H. B. White died within twelve hours at
St. Thomas' Mount of cholera. A Lieutenant of the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex
Regiment, died of hepatitis at Secunderabad.
The principal causes of invaliding were general debility, ague, enteric fever,
secondary syphilis, and hepatitis.
10. Sickness amongst women .—In an annual average strength of 887, wives of
non-commissioned officers and men, the rate per mille of admissions, excluding
those for child-birth, was 72.30, and of deaths 10.15, as compared with 795.15 and
16.97, respectively, the previous year. The more common diseases were general
debility 199, dyspepsia fifty-two, simple continued fever twenty-nine, and ague
thirty-three, and the chief' causes of mortality were diseases of febrile group three,
constitutional group one, nervous system two, circulatory system one, digestive
system one, and generative system one.
11. Sickness amongst children.—The average annual strength was 1,784, admis-
sions 1,108, and deaths fifty-six, the ratio of admissions per milk being 621.07 and
of deaths 31.39, as compared with an admission rate of 723.00 and a death rate of
45.94 the preceding year. The most prevalent diseases were measles 121,
diarrhoea 121, bronchitis ninety-nine, general debility eighty, teething seventy-five,
bronchial catarrh sixty-four, conjunctivitis fifty-eight, and febricula fifty-six, and
the deaths were attributable to teething ten, diarrhœa nine, infantile convulsions
six, convulsions five, premature birth four, and general debility four.
12. Sanitary Remarks.—The following remarks give an abstract of sanitary
matters which received attention during the year.
BARRACKS.— Eastern District .—Formerly one of the drawbacks to living in Fort
St. George was the very offensive smell that used to rise from the large main
sewer that opened into the sea close to the eastern wall. The contents of this sewer
have lately been diverted, so that this serious nuisance has been almost entirely
removed. The defective construction and ventilation of the ground-floor rooms of
the fort barracks have often been brought to notice. They are shut off by high
buildings from the sea breeze and indeed from any breeze, and in the hot weather
they are not fit places for soldiers to sleep in. Last hot season three cases of heat
apoplexy occurred in two of the worst rooms, which were afterwards vacated.
The barracks at Poonamallee are old, badly lighted and ventilated, and being
only 15¾ feet in width, allow only a central free passage of three feet wide when
the cots are in their proper places.
Bangalore Division and Ceded Districts .—At Bangalore the barracks are all
in a good sanitary condition; but some of them are, as stated in last year's report,
too close to densely populated quarters which are under the municipal authorities,
and about the sanitation of which frequent complaints are made. Bellary has been
favorably reported upon.
Western District .—At the small station of Malapuram on the West Coast new
barracks are in course of construction in place of those destroyed by fire in 1879,
and some were occupied in December.
Hyderabad Subsidiary Force .—The main defects at Secunderabad are the want
of trees to check the force of the monsoon winds and of surface drains to carry off