Diet.
Hospital.
Sickness,
mortality and invalid
i n g .
46
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL,
IX. Diet.—Provisions of all kinds have been unusually high priced during the year
under review, and I have no doubt that this has had a considerable effect on the health of the
regiment, and may be reckoned among the causes which produced the strikingly high sick rate
of the year. The price of atta was highest in February and lowest in September, when twelve
seers and two chittacks were obtainable for a rupee. No vegetables are to be had at Deolee in
the hot season ; even potatoes for the consumption of European families solely, are brought
from Nusseerabad; but during and after the rains the sudder bazar is fairly well supplied with
the commoner sorts a indigenous Vegetables, and
melons are plentiful from May to the end
of June. The want of vegetables in the hot weather did not appear to cause any approach
to scurvy among the men; but I Made a point of giving a liberal allowance of lime-juice to
all fever patients, and to any others who showed signs-of anæmia.
XIV. Hospital.—The cavalry hospital at Deolee has been described in former reports. It
is a most commodious building, and serves its purpose admirably ; it is the best hospital for
native troops I have seen in India, and could not, I think, be improved on. Besides the large
central ward, it has two s
mall separate wards,one of which I have had coloured dark and use for
affections of the eye, and the other for isolating cases of serious illness. The hospital has also
a dispensary, an office, a store-room, two bathrooms provided with all the requisites san
c-
tioned by Government, and an inner latrine for use in the rainy season. The out-houses are,
besides the servants' houses, and excellent quarters for two medical subordinates, a large latrine,
two cook-houses, a dead-house, and a guard-room. Post-mortem examinations are greatly dis
-liked by the men, and as I respect their prejudices in this, and do not insist on such examin
-
ation, except where it would appear to be absolutely required, I have availed myself of the dead-
house for the treatment of camp-followers. I have also used the guard-house in the summer
mouths, when the hospital guard do not care to occupy it, as a separate ward for the treat
-
ment of non-infectious diseases of a serious nature among the sowars' wives and children; and
this arrangement, I have reason to believe, has been much appreciated by the men. The hos
-
pital latrine is conducted on the dry-earth system ; the soilure is received in glazed earthen pans,
and is kept with a proper proportion of dry-earth in a covered iron receptacle until its removal
daily by a Crowley cart. The hospital is well supplied with Government bedding, and the
dispensary is now lighted with kerosine; the hospital doors have also been furnished during
the year with strong chicks, and the two large end-doors of the main ward with heavy purdahs.
Shortly after our occupation of the hospital, it was put into thorough repair by the Department
of Public Works, and a broad sloping margin of kunkur, edged with a narrow strip of' dub
grass, has just been laid down round the plinth. The hospital is surrounded by a three-foot
wall, forming a nice roomy compound, in a corner of which I permit the kahars to cultivate
a small plot of vegetables. Comfortable zenana yards have been attached to the hospital
assistants' quarters during the year; the driver of the hospital Crowley cart has been allowed to
erect a hut for himself in a suitable situation outside the compound wall; and an old mud
wall which stood in front of the servants' houses, and was an obstruction to ventilation, has
been removed.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding. —Strength of the regiment :—
Present
. . . . . .
.
. .
.
. 424.60
Absent
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 30.99
Total
.
.
. . . 455.59
STATION.
P E R I O D .
Strength.
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Daily
average
number of
sick.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM
From
To
Admis-
s i o n s . Deaths.
Admis-
sions. Deaths.
Daily
average sick.
Head-quarters, Meerut
. 1st Jan. 1878 . 15th January 325.25
3 ...
4.80 22.39 ...
1.47
Ditto, on march . 16th „
17th February 425.90
11 ...
7.28 28.54
...
1.70
Ditto, Deolee
. 18th February 31st December 427.13 535
7 15.35 144.21 1.87 3.61
Detachment, Agra . . 1st January 27th January
56.
... ... ...
. . .
... ...
Ditto, Delhi .
Ditto
13th
„
56.
...
...
...
...
...
...
TOTAL
.
424.6 549
7 14.17 129.39 1.64 3.3 3
Number of deaths in hospital 7; out of hospital 3; total,
10; per cent. of total strength .
. 2.19
"
invalided .
. . . . . .
7; ,,
„ .
. 1.53
"
sent on sick leave . . . . . . .
6;
"
,, .
. 1.31
"
of days spent in hospital 5,197; per admission
9.47; per man of total strength .
. 1 1 . 4 0
"
" on sick leave 519; per man .
. 86.5; „
" .
. 1 . 1 4
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength
12.54
Principal
causes of
sickness.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.—The high sick-rate of the year, the highest shown by
this regiment for several years, has to be credited to paroxysmal fevers, which have caused over
two-thirds of the sickness of the year. Of the total number of cases (549) admitted into
hospital from all causes, ague gave 389, the remainder (160) having been the result of the fol-