4
MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 19TH AUGUST 1880, No. 5253.
Although small-pox prevailed epidemically in certain parts of the Command,
only one soldier was attacked.
Enteric Fever.—Twelve attacks of this fever are returned ; they occurred at
Secunderabad, Kamptee, Bangalore and at Tonghoo.
Cholera. —In the preceding year, cholera appeared amongst the troops in every
circle, in each of the Depôts and on the march ; in the year under notice, its preva-
lence was confined to two of the circles only—the Hyderabad and the Burmah—and
to a single station in each of these circles, being Kamptee in the first and Thayet
- m y o i n t h e s e c o n d n a m e d . C h o l e r a w a s p r e v a l e n t i n t h e N a t i v e p o p u l a t i o n i n
Kamptee before it appeared amongst the European troops in May, when a man of
the Infantry regiment there was attacked ; a second case occurred in a man of the
battery of Royal Artillery in June ; the disease extended no further.
As at Kamptee so at Thayetmyo for some time cholera prevailed amongst the
Native population before it appeared amongst the troops in June, and as at the
first-named place, the disease also seemed to have some relation to the inundation
of the low ground near the river, and it was the second year of its presence at the
station.
The epidemic was not severe, but it was long continued ; the first case occurred
on the 12th of June, the last on the 22nd of September. The disease was widely
spread and it attacked every corps in the cantonment, but though this was the
case, local infection was clearly apparent ; thus five of the eleven cases in the 43rd
Foot occurred in one company of the regiment, and of the remaining ones, a
relatively considerable number occurred in hospital. The troops were promptly
removed from the different barracks in which the disease showed itself, and this
proceeding was attended with a good result ; the subsequent cases being for the
most part those of men who had acquired the disease in barracks, though it only
shewed itself after the moving into camp. Though infection of buildings was
shewn, contagion was not seen ; neither the medical officers nor the attendants in
hospital suffered except in one doubtful instance. In the epidemic thirty-six men
were attacked, twenty-three of them fatally.
Scurvy. —Four men, all belonging to one battery of Royal Artillery at
Tonghoo in Burmah, were attacked with this disease ; the illnesses were due, not to
the want of vegetables, but to the unsuitability of those issued to the require-
ments of health.
Sunstroke. —There were thirty-six admissions into hospital, and thirteen deaths
from this affection ; a third of the attacks and nearly a sixth of the deaths happened
in a company of Infantry marching in the month of May.
Diseases of the Heart. —Were more prevalent than in the preceding year; a
larger number of men were taken into hospital for palpitation ; the 48th Foot
shews an excessive prevalence of this particular affection, 56 men having suffered
from it. Respecting those of the number treated at Cannanore, the medical officer
writes " forty-nine cases (of palpitation) were treated * * * out of which number
six were invalided ; the cases were purely functional and were attributed to climate,
and the habits of the men in drinking and smoking to excess."
Diseases of the Digestive System. — T h e
r a t e o f p r e v a l e n c e o f d i s e a s e s o f t h i s
nature is lower by nearly thirty cases per 1,000 men than in the preceding year, and
concurrently with this, there is an important reduction (2.04 per 1,000 men) in the
rate of mortality from them ; dysentery was of considerably less frequent occurrence
and was also of a milder kind in many instances than in 1878.
Delirium Tremens. —Caused only twenty-three admissions into hospital and
alcohol-poisoning three during the year, but owing to a defect in the returns in
this one in particular, it is not possible to give statistical expression to the extent
to which drunkenness has been the cause of subsequent sickness. It is morally
certain that, both directly and indirectly, the habit of drinking has caused a large
proportion—a very large proportion—of the whole amount of illness from which the
force has suffered. The disease under which the state of ill-health caused by habitual