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MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 18TH SEPTEMBER 1878, No. 4838.
St. George and St. Thomas' Mount, the prevalence is attributed to clandestine
prostitution. At Bellary, it was reported by the Medical Officer in charge, 43rd
Regiment, that the men frequently stated that they had contracted the disease from
registered women. This circumstance was brought to the notice of the Officer in
medical charge, Lock Hospital, there, who in reply wrote as follows, viz. :—
"The Medical Officer submitted his report to me before its despatch.
"The information furnished him was the very marked increase of venereal
disease during the famine, the wider field and doubtless cheaper rates of prostitution
occasioned thereby, and the proportion of absentees from the Lock Hospital exami
-nations having been 1 to every 3.9 of the numerical strength as noted in his
report.
"The increased detective agency of Police during the year has had a wider
field also for its operations. Registration was also markedly extended. In 1876,
twenty-seven prostitutes were registered ; while in 1877, the number registered
was ninety-nine.
"In 1876, sixty-two prostitutes were struck off the register ; in 1877, the
number struck off the register was forty-three.
"The majority of the list last registered during the famine were found on first
examination to be diseased, having doubtless betrayed themselves in first diseasing
soldiers and others, and so brought themselves under report and registration, and
final hospital admission. Several diseased non-registered women came to hospital
voluntarily.
"With the increased admissions conclusively occasioned by the influx of District
famine refugees, I have to report that there has been increased attendance of an
additional medical subordinate at the Lock Hospital during the calamitous crisis of
the year, by which directly and indirectly the numbers of the jail and other hospitals
have also shown to have been so much swollen.
"I have merely to add that the tri-weekly inspections have been most regularly
carried out ; morning and evening examinations daily made ; and no woman is
discharged from the hospital, unless she has been found to have been free from
venereal disease for at least a week."
At Trichinopoly, it was thought due to the women evading examination. The
type of disease at Fort St. George (gonorrhœa and syphilis) was mild and
amenable to treatment. At Trichinopoly, gonorrhœa was difficult of cure.
At all stations there was a great tendency to implication of the inguinal glands,
frequently resulting in suppuration, complicated with troublesome sinuses. In one
case at Bellary, the ulceration extended to the external pudic artery, troublesome
haemorrhage resulting. At Bangalore, there was an increase both in primary syphilis
and gonorrhœa ; at Wellington an increase in gonorrhœa and a decrease in primary
syphilis. Cannanore contributed six cases of primary syphilis and thirty-three of
gonorrhœa, against thirteen and twelve respectively, in the previous year. At
Calicut, twelve cases of primary syphilis and eight of gonorrhœa were recorded,
against one and five respectively in 1876. The admissions at Malliapooram are too
trifling to merit notice. At Bangalore, the prevalence of venereal disease is
attributed to increased facilities afforded by the presence of a large starving popula
-tion, and to the circumstance that, owing to the prevalence of cholera and small
-pox in the town, the troops were prohibited from entering the bazaars in which the
registered prostitutes are located. The type of syphilis affecting 45th Regiment,
Bangalore, is described as mild, but the glandular affections resulting therefrom were
very frequent and obstinate to treatment. In the 14th Hussars quartered at same
station, the type of syphilis is described as virulent, and one case proved fatal in three
weeks, the sore having assumed a sloughing phagedænic action. Several of the
cases recorded at Wellington were believed to have been contracted elsewhere ; the