MEERUT DIVISION.
75
rently well and were performing their duties, I was in hospital for cataract, and 12 had been
sent to their homes on sick leave, as they were still unable to take food properly and had
occasional sickness and pain. Such is a brief account of the sad catastrophe which befel the
regiment during its residence at Malta.
Before concluding, it may be well to observe that cinchona alkaloid has been extensively
used in cases of periodical fever, and with almost, if not quite, as much success as quinine. In
cases in which it has failed, quinine has failed likewise. Often, however, where both of these have
been given in the usual way without benefit, hypodermic injection of quinine has effected a cure,
and no bad result has ever followed, chiefly, it would appear, from taking two precautions, viz.,
first, to use a very neutral solution of quinine, dissolved with tartaric acid ; secondly, to allow
none of the injected fluid to remain in one spot, but gently and carefully to rub it well into
the interstices of the areolar tissue.
Inspection.—The 9th Bengal Cavalry was inspected at Meerut on the 18th
December 1878. Dr. Thorp seems to have been satisfied with the medical
arrangements. He comments on the improvements which Surgeon-Major Mantell
claims to have effected in the conservancy ; but the disadvantages of an open-air
privy, especially when the same enclosure contains 10, 15, or 20, have been over-
looked, viz., the tendency of the attendants to leave the soil insufficiently
deodorized in order to save the carriage to and fro of fresh dry-earth ; secondly,
the practice of accumulating filth in a corner and irregularity in its removal ;
thirdly, the open enclosure becomes a slough in rainy seasons, and the soldiers
do not venture into the recesses ; and lastly, all who frequent it at night are too
much in the habit of never entering even the enclosure.
Inspection.
39th (The Allygurh) Regiment, Native Infantry—Meerut.
I. Medical Officers. —The head-quarters of the regiment were in medical
Offcer's.
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH.
Admissions. Deaths. Daily sick.
1873
. Jhansi, Dec. 1869
.
250.03
.86
7.06
1874
. Barrackpore, Jan. 1874,
Right Wing Alipore,
A pril 1871.
221.60
.1
7.8
1875
. Barrackpore and Alipore
140.49
2.9
6.09
1876
.
Ditto
.
.
.
120.21
2.93
3.56
1877
. Meerut, 20th Jan, 1877.
51.63
1.56
2.23
Average
.
.
156.79
1.67
5.35
1878
. Mooltan, 14th Dec. 1878
54.37
.71
2.
charge of Surgeon C. J.
McKenna from 1st January
to 12th July 1878 ; Surgeon
E. Robinson from 13th July
to 10th September 1878 ;
Surgeon C. J. McKenna from
11th September to 31st De-
cember 1878. The depot at
Meerut was in charge of Sur-
geon Thomson from 14th
November to 31st December
1878.
VI. Drainage. —In my last
year's report I referred to the im-
proved system of drainage that
was being introduced in the
Meerut cantonments ; and I am
Drainage.
pleaded to be able to state that in my opinion it is most satisfactory, and that it tended very
materially to the very great health enjoyed by all the troops there in 1878. When I was
stationed at Meerut in 1873–74 the place was getting, in fact had got, a very unenviable
notoriety for a low form of malarious fever. It was thought by many, and, if' I remember
rightly, amongst others by Dr. Beatson, now Surgeon-General, Indian Medical Department,
that the best and perhaps the only remedy for the above evils would be to sink the Aboo Nullah
sufficiently to carry off all the surface water from the station. This has been most efficiently
done. The nullah for a distance of 12½ miles has been sunk from 5 to 6 feet and widened
from 28 to 41 feet. Into this properly constructed channel drains run from all parts of the
station, and so successfully have they been laid out that no water lodges in any part of the
station even after the heaviest rains. The subsoil water is now from 5 to 6 feet below the
surface even in the rainy season, malarious fevers have decreased wonderfully amongst the
European and Native troops, and Meerut, in my opinion, may be fairly looked on now as one of
the healthiest and pleasantest stations in the plains.
X. Clothing. —When the regiment was ordered from Meerut to Mooltan, every man was
supplied with an extra blanket and recommended to buy either socks or jorabs.1 M a n y o f
the men did so, but unfortunately, on the march between Jhelum and Lawrencepore, those who
wore the ordinary sock suffered more from " blisters of' feet " than those who wore no socks at
1 Medical officers should give English translations of' vernacular words, or better still avoid their use altogether.
Clothing.