(8)
the present arrangement, the services of one subordinate is divided between the General
and Lock-hospitals, and must be available also for the Leper-hospital.
2. Surgeon-Major W. F. deFabeck, M.D., was in medical charge during the whole
year, excepting a few days in March, while absent on duty at Rangoon, when Dr. Sinclair,
Superintendent of the Moulmein Jail, officiated.
3. There were no European troops stationed in Moulmein during the past year.
The cantonment is garrisoned by a wing of the 15th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry.
The Medical Officer in charge of the Regiment has furnished a statement in the prescribed
form, showing the extent to which venereal diseases have occurred amongst the sepoys.
The information thus furnished is embodied in the following statement :—
Regiment.
Period of occupation.
Average strength
during period of
occupation.
Number of admissions
from veneral diseases
during period of occu-
pation.
Ratio of admissions
per 1,000 of strength
during period of
occupation.
15th Regiment M.N.I. .. 11 months
296..
G Gonorrhœa..
..
1
378
Bubo
1
3.378
Total
.. 2
6.756
Deduct cases contracted at other
..Nill.
places
Balance number of cases contracted
2
at Moulmein
6.756
The admissions from venereal among the Native troops, it will be seen, is extremely
low, there being only two cases in a strength of 296, against twenty-two cases in a strength
of 314 in 1874. This great decrease may be attributable to the fact Mat the troops which
garrisoned Moulmein in 1875 were new arrivals ; they had been in occupation for only
eleven months, whereas in 1874 it was the third year of occupation of the troops which
then garrisoned the place. The disparity in strength is so slight, as not to account for the
difference. The ratio of admissions per 1,000 in 1874 was 7. . 06 ; in 1875, 6.756. How far
this decrease in venereal diseases amongst the troops may be attributed to the good
influence of the Lock-hospital, it is hard to say.
4. The Lock-hospital, Moulmein, being a civil institution, it is supervised by the Town
Magistrate and the Deputy Commissioner, Amherst District.
5. An Inspector of Police (specially told off for the purpose), has the registration and
control of prostitutes. Thirteen women were brought up by him, during the year, before
the Magistrate, for practising prostitution without licenses.
6. Registration is conducted by the Officer named above, under the control of the
Magistrate, and may be regarded as efficient ; but there is great difficulty in procuring con-
victions in cases of unlicensed prostitutes. Owing to this difficulty (insufficient evidence,
or the reluctance of people to give evidence), many such persons could not be dealt with.
Registration has hitherto been confined exclusively amongst Burmese and Coringees;
but, during the past year, there were also three or four Bengalee women registered. The
area over which registration extends is ten and a half square miles, the extent of the
town of Moulmein. There were three more prostitutes on the register than in 1874 ;
but the average monthly number on the register is less than in 1874. Owing to the removal
from the list of seventy prostitutes, against fifty-three only registered during the year,
there is a decrease of seventeen on the register at the close of the year.
7. No registration fees are levied from prostitutes ; and, as fines are imposed and levied
by the Magistrate, nothing is derivable from this source towards making the hospital
in Moulmein in any way " self-supporting."
8. Fifty-five women were reported to the Magistrate for non-attendance at the
periodical examinations. This is an increase of twenty-five over 1874 ; but, as in 1874, many
of those reported " absent at examinations" were found to have been struck off the list,
as having either given up prostitution, often reporting themselves as about to get married,
or as having left the station. With the exception of those struck off as above mentioned,
the attendance of prostitutes at the periodical examinations has been regular. Thirteen
defaulters, less by five than last year, as above shown, were reported to the Magistrate for
practising prostitution without licenses. Of these five were convicted,—two for absence
from hospital without leave, one was warned, and one punished ; and five for changing
their residences without previous notice,—four were convicted, and one case dismissed.
The amount of fines inflicted and realized, by the Magistrate during the year, was Rs. 70.
Last year Rs. 570 were levied, and Rs. 495 realized. The inmates of the hospital have
conducted themselves well, and there has been no difficulty in dealing with them : they
neither resist, nor object to, treatment,