6
Position of village
where the cholera camp
existed in reference to
barracks.
28. This village of Chilkulsroodum lies within half a mile of the Hussar
Barracks and Hospital, somewhat to the south and east. The
main road from Masulipatam runs just to the north of the
Hussar Barracks, but the bullock carts, and native traffic
generally, pass by a short cut to the Secunderabad bazaar along a road to the
south of the barracks, which road runs close by the horsekeepers' lines of the
Hussars, through the village of Chilkulgoodum. It was just outside of this
village that the cart drivers had halted on the 23rd May with unmistakeable
cases of cholera in their camp. The village, it may be added, is in close
proximity to the barracks, hospital, horse lines, and horsekeepers' huts of the
18th Hussars.
Action taken by Mili-
tary authorities on dis-
covery of cholera close
to the barracks.
29. In order to show the action taken by the local authorities on the
discovery of cholera so near to the cantonment, I again quote from Dr. Barclay's
official diary :—
" Wednesday 24th.—Visited Hospital of the 3rd L. I. in the morning. Was
here informed by the Hospital Assistant (the Medical Officer,
who shortly after reported to the same effect not being
present, the last evening, 23rd) hearing a report of there
being cholera in a bandy encampment just beyond Chilkulgoodum village, he
went to the place and found two men with unmistakeable symptoms of the
disease. With some difficulty he extracted from the bandymen the information
that on their way from Masulipatam, near the Kistna, they had been attacked
by the disease, and had lost several of their number.
"Measures were immediately taken, in concert with the Assistant Quarter-
master-General and the Assistant Magistrate (the Cantonment Magistrate being
absent from the station to-day) to stop all ingress, in the meantime, from the
affected quarter, and a meeting has been arranged for to-morrow morning at
Chilkulgoodum to determine what further arrangements should be adopted.
Called on the Deputy Inspector-General, British Medical Service, and not finding
him at home, wrote to inform him of what had occurred. In reply he has
kindly volunteered to join in our deliberation to-morrow morning.
" Wrote, also, to all the Medical Officers of this department, acquainting
them with the threatened danger, and requesting them to be on the alert."
Her Majesty's Birth-
day. Parade of troops
on 24th May.
30. The morning of the 24th May being the Queen's birth-day, the whole
of the troops in garrison, European and Native, appeared on
the general parade ground. The morning was said to have
been tolerably cool, and indeed up to this time there had been
very little of really hot weather, such as is seasonable in the Deccan in the
month of May. The 18th Hussars, being nearer home than the Infantry
Regiments at Trimulgherry, was not kept out late, or exposed unduly to the sun,
in consequence of this birth-day parade. No men fell out during the parade
and the health of the Corps at the time was such as to excite no uneasiness.
The sick list was rather heavy, being upwards of eight per cent, of strength.
There were 32 men in hospital on the morning of the 24th. There was no
unusual prevalence of fevers or bowel complaints. Only one case of diarrhoea
(a case of long standing) was in hospital, and none of dysentery. A man had
been admitted a day or two before for sunstroke, and there were three cases of