Medical
Officers.
Location and
movements.
PRESIDENCY DISTRICT. 5
Inspection. —Mr. Cockburn, Deputy Surgeon-General of the Presidency
Circle, inspected the regiment on the 27th November 1878. The position of the
lines he considers to be unfavourable, the ground being low and the surface
rainfall stagnant. Indeed, the drainage of all that portion of the Barrackpore
cantonment is considered defective. The conservancy exists under the same
system as in 1877; but cultivation of the trenched grounds has now been per-
mitted. The water-supply is only in part obtained from the filtered municipal
works through the ordinary hydrants. When these are shut off, unfiltered tank
water is used. The sickness of the year has been marked by a distinct access
of malaria. Agues have been prevalent; there have been five deaths from this
type, and one death each from cholera, small-pox, dysentery, general debility,
and phthisis, and, generally, the inspecting medical officer remarks on the thin,
anæmic condition of a large proportion of the sepoys.
Forty-two clinical cases, fully written up, are noted as having been entered
during the year. In respect of the hospital establishment and service, the
inspection was satisfactory.
Inspection.
38th (The Agra) Regiment, Native Infantry—Barrackpore.
I. Medical Officers. —Surgeon W. M. Courtney held medical charge of the
regiment up to September
16th. He was relieved,
proceeding on furlough, by
Surgeon S. J. Thomson. The
last-named officer held me-
dical charge until the end
of the year.
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OP STRENGTH.
Admissions. Death. Daily sick.
1873
. Buxa, Duar, Bhutan,
March 1873
.
.
137.3
7.1
7.5
1874
. Buxa, Duar, Bhutan .
150.7
3.7
10.6
1875
. Buxa, Duar, Bhutan,
marching to Barrack-
pore, November 1875
136.96
1.64
5.44
1876
. Head-quarters at Bar-
rackpore; detachment
at Dum-Dum, January
1876 .
.
.
.
366.4
3.48
8.32
1877
. Barrackpore.
.
.
254.48
12.44
10.27
Average
.
.
209.15
5.67
8.42
1878
. Barrackpore and Meerut
269.73
26.27
14.03
II. Location and movements.
— T h e r e g i m e n t r e m a i n e d s t a t i o n e d
at Barrackpore until 19th October,
when it proceeded by rail to
Meerut, arriving there on 23rd
October. The regiment remained
at Meerut until the end of the
year. On 1st February the re-
giment was ordered into camp at
Kanchrapara, near Barrackpore,
temporarily, as a health measure.
It returned to Barrackpore on 15th
March. On 26th June a detachment of 42 sick men was sent for change of air to Cawnpore.
They were again removed from there to Moradabad on 4th September, and remained at the last-
named station until the end of the year. A detachment of an average strength of 21 men was
also furnished to Roorkee from 29th October to 31st December.
IX. Dieting. —The question of dieting has been carefully gone into. While it is possible
that in Lower Bengal rice was occasionally substituted for atta, I am of opinion that under-
feeding has been very little practised, and that where it has occurred it has been solely due to the
loss of appetite consequent on disease. The attention of all officers has been so frequently
called to the possibility that detection was almost inevitable. Lately, men unable to eat their
full ration of atta, &c., have been ordered to take an equivalent quantity of milk, showing the
same to their company officers. The men now as a body are not.ill-norurished.
XI. Duties. —The duties throughout the year have been heavy, owing to the number of
men inefficient through illness. Parades, however, have been reduced in length and number
and means adopted to lighten the duties as far as possible. Nights in bed 5.27.
Dieting.
Duties.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding. —Strength of the regiment :—
Present
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 490.84
Absent
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
83.80
Total
.
. 574.64
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
B
13