81
MEERUT DIV'ISION.
There were 24 men who were invalided for discharge froth the service, of whom 17 were
of long service and 7 of short service.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness. —The regiment remained in a fair state of general health
until the 6th August, when it was turned out into camp on account of a slight outbreak of
cholera. I have strong reasons for believing that this measure, although productive of the end
for which it had been adopted, gave rise to many more admissions from other diseases than would
otherwise have occurred. The heat in the tents during the day was almost unbearable; while
at night the temperature fell low enough to give rise to a feeling of chilliness. To this was
added the fact that the men were encamped on the parade ground, the greater part of which
had recently been under water, and the drainage of which is, as I have repeatedly pointed out,
extremely defective. They were thus exposed to direct solar radiation, great fluctuation of
temperature, and miasmatic exhalations, all of which are believed to be powerful factors in the
production of intermittent fevers. Be this as it may, the number of cases of ague increased
steadily from that date until the 14th October, when the regiment proceeded to Umballa, leaving
53 in the depôt hospital, of whom 32 were suffering from ague.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality. —Of the 12 deaths which occurred in hospital, 9 took
place at the head-quarters of the regiment, 2 with the detachment at Fattehgarh, and 1 with the
depôt at Agra. Of these, 1 was due to small-pox, 3 to cholera, 2 to phthisis, 1 to heart disease,
2 to pneumonia, 1 to pleurisy, 1 to dysentery, and 1 to diarrhœa. The two deaths "out of
hospital" were in the persons of men who had been granted sick leave, one for bronchitis and
the other for phthisis, and as in the former there was a suspicion of organic affection, it is pro
- b a b l e t h a t b o t h e v e n t s w e r e d u e t o t h e l a t t e r d i s e a s e .
Principal
causes of
sickness.
Principal
causes of
mortality.
XVIII.
Epidemics. —While stationed at Agra 14 cases of cholera occurred in the regiment;
in eight instances the patients being sepoys. The first was in the person of a sepoy in No. 3
section, H company. The man was admitted on the 2nd June about 3 A.M. ; the symptoms,
which were unmistakeably those of cholera, having set in at midnight. He had gone to sleep,
apparently in his usual health, along with 17 of his comrades in the barrack, and no circum
-tances connected with himself personally or with the locality could be discovered to account
for the attack. The disease had made its appearance in cantonments a few days before, one
case having occurred in the Cheepatollah bazar on the 29th May, while a month previously
there had been seizures in the artillery quartered in the fort (beyond cantonment bounds).
There was no evidence however to show that this man had, within any reasonable time, been in
proximity to the infected localities, nor, as far as one could see, was there a probability of the
water in the lines, which he had used, having become contaminated with choleraic or other
objectionable matter. The next person attached was a "bheestee's" wife. She got ill on the
26th July about 9 A.M. By this time the disease had become more general throughout the
station, but the evidence connecting her seizure with those of others elsewhere was, as in the
first case, negatived. A third case took place two clays after, the subject being a recruit in
No. 2 section, F company. These three first cases occurring at considerable intervals were,
although presenting distinctive symptoms of the disease of a mild character and readily amen
-able to treatment, differing in this respect to a marked degree from those which followed
on and after the 5th August. The same characteristic was noticed among the civil community,
where up to this date only 1 death occurred in 8 seizures, the proportion subsequently becoming
20 in 32. On the 5th and 6th August there were 6 attacks among the men, of which 3 proved
fatal, and on the same dates 4 among the camp-followers, with 2 deaths. The whole regiment
was then moved into camp on the parade ground, and the only further appearance of the disease
was in the case of a Jemadar's wife, who had been left in the lines. She was attacked on the
10th August, and died the following day.
Epidemics.
Means taken to arrest the progress of the disease. —Up to the 6th August the 'men from the
infected barracks were simply moved into empty buildings, but on that date the regiment was
marched into camp on the parade ground, where it remained until the 26th. The women and
children were left in the lines. The men affected were taken first to the regimental hospital,
from which, so soon as the disease was recognized, they were conveyed by "dooly" to grass
huts and tents erected on the south side of the parade ground. All the infected buildings were
fumigated and otherwise disinfected at the time, and they as well as the uninfected ones were
leepoed1 before being again occupied. On account of there being only one native regiment
in the station, and all the guards having to be furnished by it, no quarantine was established,
nor did any evil results appear to follow the neglect of this measure. All the circumstances
connected with the outbreak were entered into by me in a special report on the subject, render
-i ng further reproduction unneccessary.
Inspection.—The inspection of this regiment was conducted by Deputy
Surgeon-General H. M. Cannon, M.B., on the 6th and 7th December 1878. On
the day of the inspection there were 94 in hospital, suffering for the most part
from malarious fever, which had appeared epidemically throughout the district.
The inspecting medical officer considered the men to be as a body "predisposed
to fever, and at present quite unfit for active service or even for a march under
arms." In addition to epidemic influences, the Deputy Surgeon-General was
of opinion that the sickness was due to extra duty, entailing exposure at night
and to defective sanitary precautions, in not having been protected from the
Means taken
to arrest the
progress of
the disease.
Inspection.
1Vide foot-note, p. 75.
V