MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 18TH SEPTEMBER 1878, No. 4838.
The invaliding rate was less than in previous year. There were thirty-three
invalids, giving a ratio of 72.68 against 83.95 in 1876.
Women .— Average strength 1,364 ; admissions 1,553, of which 295 were due
to child-birth. The admission ratio equalled 1138.56, and the death rate 27.13
per mille of strength. Both were in excess of the previous year. Part of the
increase noted in the admission rate may be due, as stated last year, to the exercise
of greater care in recording cases treated out of hospital.
The digestive and febrile groups contributed the chief admissions,—dyspepsia,
diarrhœa, dysentery, simple continued fever and ague being the most prominent
ailments.
Two hundred and seventy-eight admissions were due to general debility. The
febrile group of diseases caused the chief mortality, viz., thirteen deaths, which
includes seven deaths from cholera and two from pyæmia.
The digestive and constitutional groups follow next in order, each contributing
four deaths. In the former, two were due to dysentery, one to diarrhœa, and one
to hepatitis ; in the latter, three were due to phthisis pulmonalis and one to cancer.
Cholera caused ten admissions and seven deaths, small-pox eight admissions,—all
recovered. There was one case of dengue at Bangalore.
Enteric fever caused four admissions and one death. I have examined the
records in these cases ; two of them, viz., Mrs. Giles and Mrs. Mallen, both belonging
to 14th Hussars, Bangalore, are recorded in my report on enteric fever, pages 30
and 31. The nature of Mrs. Giles' case is uncertain, and appeared more like ardent
fever running into heat apoplexy than anything else. Mrs. Mallen's case appears to
have been a recurrence of endemic non-specific remittent fever. The cases of Mrs.
Isaac, 43rd Regiment, Bellary, and Mrs. Maslin, Royal Horse Artillery, Bangalore,
both occurred subsequent to commencing my published report on enteric fever.
Particulars of these cases are noted in the accompanying appendix. The former I
believe to have been a case of adynamic fever, relapsing, non-specific, complicated
with pneumonia ; the latter, an exanthematous fever, nature of exanthem uncer
-tain. Nothing to show specific causation of enteric fever, nor the grounds upon
which the case was diagnosed as such. The temperature chart unlike any other
typical one of enteric fever.
Children.—Average strength 2,757. Admissions 1,936 ; deaths 180. The
admission ratio (702.21) exceeds that of 1876 by 107.43 per mille of strength, the
death ratio (65.28) showing an increase of 3.51 compared with the previous year.
The increased admission rate was due to dysentery, diarrhœa and conjunctivitis,
particularly the latter. Conjunctivitis caused 457 admissions, against 226 in the
previous year. Nearly half of these cases were furnished by the two Infantry
regiments at Secunderabad. It prevailed during September, October and part
of November. Relative to it, the Principal Medical Officer remarks—"These cases
were the ordinary country sore eyes, which almost invariably appear during the
rains, and are, I consider, of malarious origin." Of diseases classed by groups, that
of the digestive system prevailed most. The febrile group, comprising measles,
simple continued fever, ague and febricula, comes next in order. Six cases of enteric
fever are recorded, two of which proved fatal ; four occurred at Bangalore, and two
at Secunderabad. These cases are recorded at pages 31 and 44 of my report on
enteric fever.
3 appear to have been cases of remittent fever non-specific.
1 Febricula.
1 Uncertain.
1 Ardent fever ending in heat apoplexy.
Cholera caused sixteen admissions and twelve deaths. Hooping cough caused
but five admissions—none fatal against thirty-four, with one death, in previous year.
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