166
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL,
Principal
causes of
sickness.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness. — B r o n c h i a l c a t a r r h w a s v e r y p r e v a l e n t a t K o h a t i n t h e
beginning of the year, accounted for by the exigencies of service in the field; and after the
return of the regiment to cantonments, by exposure to the notorious Hungoo breeze, which
strikes down many a man with all sorts of chest and lung affections.
Principal
causes of
mortality.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.— There were 8 deaths in hospital during the year ;
1 from remittent fever, 1 from acute bronchitis, 2 from pneumonia, 1 from dysentery, 1 from
peritonitis, and 2 from wounds inflicted by a Mahomedan fanatic, whom we took and hanged and
buried in quicklime.
Vaccination.
XIX. Vaccination. —There were 21 cases of primary vaccination during the year ending
31st March, and of these no less than 18 were successful. Most of the recruits are protected
either by inoculation or by having had smallpox before enlistment. Vaccination operations
are almost entirely confined to the children born in the regimental bazar. In this station there
is every facility for vaccination. There are two experienced vaccinators, most respectable men,
and their operations are extensive every year.
Special
observations
and remarks.
XXI. Special observations and remarks.— T h e D e p u t y S u r g e o n - G e n e r a l c a l l e d o n m e i n
February last for an opinion on certain obstinate sores which broke out in the regiment while
it was in the field, with special reference to their being due to a scorbutic taint. I submitted
my opinion that they were a local manifestation of that diathesis showing itself in the parts
which were hardest worked, most exposed, and least taken care of. The sores were painless, but
very intractable, yielding slightly to treatment, but disappearing completely when the patients
were given change of air by sending them to their homes. No new cases appeared after the
regiment returned from the field. Fever was very prevalent in the 4th Punjab Infantry in
Edwardesabad, far more so, I may remark, than in the 3rd Sikhs, who were quartered in the
" h o r n - w o r k . " I h a v e b e e n i n f o r m e d b y a m e d i c a l o f f i c e r w h o w a s s t a t i o n e d h e r e i n 1 8 7 7 , t h a t t h e
regiment which occupied the "horn-work" during that year, was more unhealthy than the one
in the fort itself. I am unable to give a reasonable, or even a plausible, explanation of the
causes of the unequal distribution of sickness, in two regiments living side by side and closely
resembling each other in composition, strength and the conditions under which they exist as to
recruiting, military duties and mode of life. It may be that the greater exposure which our
men have to undergo when they resort to the fields for the purposes of nature is one of the
causes of the difference. If so, a latrine is the obvious remedy. With respect to the action of
cinchona febrifuge, I cannot say that I am satisfied with it. Most of the cases of fever
admitted during the year under consideration were exceedingly mild attacks, but in many
instances the attacks were repeated again and again, and the question arises whether they would
have recurred had the disease been at once treated with 12 or 15 grains of sulphate of quinine;
and assuming that the answer will be in the negative, the further question arises whether it
would not be cheaper for the Government to issue the expensive and trustworthy sulphate of
quinine, and have the services of many men who get repeated attacks disabling them from duty,
than to issue the cinchona febrifuge and lose such a great number of days' service, as I have in-
dicated in para. 15 of this report and in the gain and loss statements attached to the annual
return. I am pretty sure of this one thing, viz., the cinchona febrifuge is not to be trusted in a
severe case of intermittent fever, nor in any remittent fever, nor for the purpose of lowering
the temperature in any of the great febrile inflammations ; it is, moreover, too nauseous to be
prescribed for Europeans, ladies and children especially. I wrote a short report in 1876 on the
action of cinchonidine in fever, in which I spoke strongly in favour of substituting it for
quinine in a large proportion, but the drug then supplied for experiment differs from that
now supplied for treatment very widely. I have caused a list of fifty men of the 4th Punjab
Infantry to be made out ; they had among them 329 admissions on account of fever, which
give an average of 6.58 admissions per man, and in many of them (I think I may say in the
greater number of them) the febrifuge had to be supplemented sooner or later by quinine in
small doses. The febrifuge is good in mild attacks, but my present experience leads me to
doubt whether it is as efficacious as I had formerly considered it to be.
3rd Regiment, Sikh Infantry—Edmardesabad.
Medical
Officer.
I. Medical Officer.— S u r g e o n T . M o l o n e y , M . D . , h e l d m e d i c a l c h a r g e o f t h e
regiment throughout the
year.
Location and
movements.
II. Location and movements. —
The head-quarters of the regi-
ment was on field service with
the Jowaki Field Force from the
1st January to 4th February; at
Kohat from 5th to 26th February ;
on the march to Edwardesabad in
course of relief, from 27th Febru-
ary to 4th March ; from the 5th
March to 31st December at Ed-
wardesabad.
Meteorology.
IV. Meteorology. —A severe
shock of earthquake was felt on
the 2nd March.
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH.
Admissions Deaths. Daily sick.
1873
. Dora Ismail Khan, 1872
158.4
2.5
4.
1874
. Ditto
198.6
2.
4.3
1675
. Kohat, Jan. 1875 .
.
209.96
3.27
3.9
1876
.
Ditto
. . .
133.45
1.36
2.4
1877
. Ditto
. . .
106.01
2.02
2.1
Average
.
.
161.28
2.23
3.34
1878
. Edwardesabad, 5th Mar.
1878.
183.93
2.15
3.44