48
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL,
deficiency of the usual amount of water-supply produces grave anxiety for the year just commen-
ced. In consultation with the Officer Commanding and the District Engineer Officers, various
proposals have been considered for the adoption of the best and most immediate mode which can
be devised to mitigate this deficiency. The one, which seems to find most favor, is to deepen and
enlarge a well situated near the Nek-Chal tank, and about 800 or 1,000 yards from the lines,
into which the water from the tank may percolate. This, however, at the best, seems only a
make-shift arrangement, and a much more satisfactory one, though involving considerably more
expense, would appear to be the construction of an aqueduct with head-works from the river
Bun as, which, in a direct line westwards, flows within little more than three miles from the
station.
X V . S i c k n e s s , m o l a l t y a n d i n v a l i d i n g . — S t r e n g t h o f t h e r e g i n m e n t : —
Sickness, mortality and invaliding.
STATION.
PERIOD.
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- s i o n s . Daaths .
Daily
average
sick.
Head-quarters at Deolee.
1st Jan. 1878 9th Jan. 1878
628.64 620
8
24.16 98.62 1.27
3.84
5th Feb. 1878 31st Dec. 1878
„
Nusseerabad 10th Jan. 1878 4th Feb. 1878
Detachment at Jaipore
. 1st Jan. 1878 31st Dec. 1878
62.54
118
...
4.50 188.67 ...
719
Ditto at Agra
.
Ditto
.
Ditto
.
41.54
97
1
2.52 233.50 2.40 6.06
Ditto
at Ajmere
. 26th Oct. 1878 31st Dee. 1878 117
70
...
9.58 325.88 ...
8.18
Ditto at Sambhur .
Ditto
.
Ditto
.
52.7
44
1
6.79 454.83 10.29 12.88
Ditto with Agent, Gov-
ernor-General.
4th Jan. 1878 1st Feb. 1878
1 3
...
...
...
. . .
...
...
Ditto at Deolee .
. 11th
„
4th
„
239.
22
1
23.38 134.22 6.10 9.92
TOTA
. . .
. . . 788.49 971
11
36.48 123.14 1.39 4.62
Number of deaths in hospital 11 ; out of hospital 2; total 13; per cent. of total strength .
. 1.48
,,
invalided
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
39 ;
,,
, ,
.
.•
4.46
sent on sick leave
.
.
.
.
.
.
4;
,,
, ,
.
.
.45
„
days spent in hospital 13,315; per admission
. 1 3 . 7 1 ; p e r m a n o f t o t a l s t r e n g t h .
. 15.23
,,
on sick leave 274; per man
. . 6 8 . 5 ;
, ,
, ,
.
.
.31
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength
.
. 15.54
Present
.
.
.
.
.
. . . . .
. 788.49
Absent
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
85.37
Total
. 873.86
Principal
causes of
sickness.
Epidemics.
Medical
Officers.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness. —The year 1878 has been an unusually unhealthy one,
the total number of admissions into hospital being at most double that of the previous year.
This number has been so abnormally swollen by the occurrence of 531 cases of intermittent
fever of various kinds, and of 45 cases of' remittent fever ; and as the majority of these cases
occurred either during or after the epidemic of' cholera which visited this cantonment in the
middle of the year, they were doubtless due to causes similar to, or in some way connected with,
those which produced that epidemic.
XVIII. Epidemics. —An epidemic of cholera of some severity to the surrounding popula-
tion visited Deolee in the middle of the year, the first case occurring on the 19th July and the
last on the 23rd September. In the force, however, only four cases occurred, of which two
proved fatal. The immediate distribution of the troops in outlying camps appeared to exert
the most salutary effect upon them, and to render them almost entirely exempt from the influence
of the disease while it raged among the civil population of the place.
E r i n p o o r a h
I r r e g u l a r F o r c e — E r i n p o o r a h .
I. Medical Officers. —Surgeon W. Beatson held medical charge from 1st
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH,
Admissions. Deaths. Daily sick.
1873
. Erinpoorah .
.
.
65.1
. 4
2.4
1874.
. Ditto
. . .
89.7
1.1
2.8
1875
.
Ditto
.
.
.
85.9
1.14
2.6
1876
. D i t t o . . . .
85.19
. 9 1
3.09
1877
. Ditto
.
.
.
86.35
. 9 1
2.49
Average .
.
.
82.45
. 8 9
2.67
1878
. Eriupoorah .
.
.
122.98
1.37
3.51
January to 8th February,
and Surgeon-Major H. D. S.
Compigné, M.D., from 9th
February to 31st December,
who also furnishes the an-
nual report. The year has
been uneventful. Malarial
fever was epidemic more
than usual, and caused a
marked rise in the medical
statistics. In the absence of
any unusual occurrence the
report is almost the same as
in previous years—a result