52
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
occurred were not so much due to the severity of the disease as to the feeble power of
resistance. Latterly, however, the Regiment has been fast improving in health, and I trust
will soon reach the normal standard.
10. The diseases that furnished the greater number of admissions are—ague 484,
Details of treated.
contusions 37, boils 17, diarrhœa 30, conjunctivitis and other
eye affections 14, scurvy 24, rheumatism, acute and chronic, 28,
dysentery 15, ulcers 7, and colic 29.
Two cases of dementia and one case of mania occurred during the year. In one case of
dementia which occurred under the late Dr. Rogers, the cause was, according to that
Surgeon, impaired nutrition of the brain from a morbid condition of the blood, which
was first indicated by scurvy. The case of mania occurred in a man who indulged
moderately in gunjah, who was weak, anæmic, and slightly scorbutic ; he remains under
treatment.
A very interesting case of aortic obstructive and regurgitant heart disease occurred,
which proved suddenly fatal, and baffled all treatment.
Amongst officers a case of congestive apoplexy occurred. The attack came on at night
whilst the officer was out on duty on horseback. He fell off the horse and continued insensible,
breathing slowly, irregularly, and stertorously, and in a precarious state with cold extremities,
and hot head, for 48 hours. There was no paralysis at any time of the illness, no albuminuria,
and beyond weakness, no organic or functional disease of the heart. When he became
conscious he continued for a long time drowsy, forgetful, and in a half dreamy state, with
very confused ideas as to time and the place he was living in, &c. With great difficulty,
and prolonged anxious watching and treatment, he was sufficiently brought round to under-
take a journey to the Neilgherries for change of air. This he did and has thoroughly recruited
his health. Another officer had a prolonged and severe attack of remittent fever, from the
effects of which he was so much reduced in strength that he was strongly recommended for
sick leave to England.
The total number of admissions during the year from all diseases, excluding the
detachments whilst they were at Aden, and excluding the Right Half Battalion at Indore,
was 475 ; the daily sick 9 . 6 ; the average strength 5.34 ; and the average strength present
443 . 2, and including the detachments it was 795.
11. There were six deaths in the hospital at Head Quarters at Mhow ; one from remit-
Mortality and its causes.
tent fever ; four from ague ; and one from valve disease of the
heart and aortic aneurism. In one case of ague death was
sudden, and on post mortem examination the heart was found to be small, pale, flabby, and
anæmic, and the body emaciated to the last degree. Death occurred from syncope due to
the increased strain on the already feeble heart by the rise in temperature, and the depressing
influence of the malarial poison. In the second case the man was half starved and weak to
begin with, and succumbed easily to the disease. The other two cases of ague in which death
occurred were in men just arrived from Aden in a very debilitated condition. In the case of
valvular disease of the heart, there was, besides aortic obstructive and regurgitant disease, an
aortic aneurism to account for the sudden death that occurred after a sudden attack of
vomiting of blood. There was not a single symptom during life indicative of the presence
of this aneurism, which attained the size of a small lemon, and which was situated three
inches from the commencement of the aorta. The aorta was considerably dilated, and its
lining membrane, together with that covering the valves, thickened, and very much
roughened. In the sac were four ulcers of varying depths, one of which perforated into the
trachea. The remaining 10 deaths occurred in the Right Half Battalion at Indore, their
causes being sporadic cholera 8, ague 1, and remittent fever 1.
There were six deaths out of hospital. One from phthisis, one a man who died from
the effects of scurvy, one from dysentery, and two from acute and chronic bronchitis (all men
on sick leave) ; and one, a man who was drowned in a nullah whilst bathing.
12. There were no cases of cholera in the head quarter wing. In the Right Half
Battalion at Indore, however, there occurred several, which will
be reported on by the Medical Officer in charge.
One case of small-pox remained from last year ; one new case was admitted on the
6th January 1878. The former was in a girl, the latter in a boy ; both were under five years
of age. They caught the disease probably somewhere in the Conkan, as they were travelling
from Malwa to Bombay and from thence to Mhow, and as one had the attack before she
came to Bombay, and the other at Mhow ; one was unprotected, and the other imperfectly
protected by vaccination. Neither had a previous attack of small-pox. The unprotected
case was of the confluent variety and very severe ; the protected one was of the discrete
Epidemics.