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MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 19TH AUGUST 1881, No. 4447.
This latrine is said to be in the best site that can be selected for the purpose,
and the Municipality has been called upon to have the latrine carefully looked
after, so as to make it as little offensive as possible. If the latrine did not exist,
the nuisance would probably be much greater than it is.
V.— Water-supply. —The drainage that enters the Ulsoor Tank at Bangalore
is a subject that has long received
Page 4.
attention, and remedial measures have,
from time to time, been adopted. Most of the water used by the troops is pumped
out from wells in the vicinity of the tank, and not from the tank itself. When
water is taken directly from the tank, it is filtered before it is distributed for use.
The care taken in this matter may account for the remark by the Surgeon-General,
namely, "No evidence whatever is given, no assertion even is made, of observed ill
consequences attending its use."
The attention of the General Officer Commanding British Burmah Division
P a g e 4 . 4 .
will be called to the remarks of the Sur-
geon-General regarding the water-supply
at Rangoon. The water-supply of Kamptee is receiving the attention of the local
authorities.
SANITARY REPORT OF THE TROOPS IN THE MADRAS COMMAND FOR 1880.
The health of the troops in the command was good during the year ; with one exception,
the rates of sickness and of the results of sickness are lower than those of the preceding year ;
the death and the invaliding rates are very greatly lower. The exception noted is a very impor
-tant one, that of the rate of daily sick, which in the present year is higher than that of 1879 ;
the increase, however, is an apparent, not a real one, and it is due solely to the fact that from
the last quarter of the year now under notice, all men actually incapacitated from their duty on
account of sickness have been included in number of the "daily sick ;" until now this term com
-prehended only men sick in hospital. By including men detained in hospital for the day, con
-valescents, &c., the daily sick rate of 1880 is loaded to the extent of about a twentieth part.
The favorable health results are due to the climatic conditions of the present year ; epide
-mic disease, if not altogether absent, was in a minimum of prevalence ; one case of cholera only
is returned, and sunstroke was comparatively infrequent. Paroxysmal fevers were not greatly
prevalent, except in the Burmah Division ; for this division the returns show the not rare com
-bination of a high rate of prevalence of sickness with a low rate of mortality and of invalid
-ing. Respecting one form of fever—the enteric—the prevalence or the absence of which in Euro
-pean countries is held to be almost synonymous with the existence of imperfect, or of efficient
sanitary provisions, for the populations, it is unsatisfactory to have to record that more cases
occurred in 1880 than in 1879 ; and it is also questionable if all the cases which really did occur
were recognised. The number of separate stations from which attacks of this fever were re
-turned is the same as in the preceding year, but the distribution is different,—Kamptee and
Secunderabad being of the number in both years ; in the instance of the former station, the
sickness had an epidemic character, and not improbably had its origin in the use of polluted
water by those attacked.
BARRACKS.
•
The notices in the reports of insanitary conditions affecting the buildings in which the men
are lodged are few. The following are the principal : —
Fort St, George, Madras. —The Administrative Medical Officer of the circle reports strongly
against the continued occupation of the casemated barracks in which the Royal Artillery of
the garrison are quartered, on account of their being very hot and unventilated, and of
insufficient capacity for the numbers in them. These defects exist, and the quarters are gloomy
and incommodious ; but it is necessary to recognise the fact that the men lodged in the case
-mates have been healthy, not in this year only, but for several successive years, and of the ill-
nesses amongst them none show the influence of unwholesome lodging. The spacious and airy
barracks adjoining in the same fort, all the rooms of which are exposed to the sea breeze, do
not compare favorably with the casemate barracks in respect of the sickness accruing to those
occupying them ; perhaps the last-named barracks afford a compensatory advantage for their
gloominess in the absence of the chilling currents of air, which, passing over the bodies of
sleeping men, originate disease in them.
Poonamallee. —The barracks for the Invalid Depôt are being reconstructed.