Vaccination and re-vaccination.
Invaliding and its causes.
78 MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
13. 16 primary vaccine operations were performed during
the year, and 17 re-vaccinations; the results were most satis-
-factory.
14. 1 subedar, 2 jemedars, 1 naique, and 3 privates took
their pension, under provisions of G. G. O. No. 98 of 1878.
15. I have little else to offer beyond the points alluded to already under the foregoing
headings. The hospital and its establishments are complete
and satisfactory.
16. Under this important and interesting heading I may observe that in the majority
of cases of mild, uncomplicated, intermittents, the margosa
or neem bark answers fairly well. I am in the habit of using
the decoction of this costless indigenous drug by taking 4
ounces of the inner layer of the bark, boiling it in a pint and
a half of water, and then straining. This must be freshly prepared in order to be efficacious.
It is also a very good vegetable stomachic, and I very frequently give it in combination with
ferruginous and mineral acid tonic remedies. I prescribe the sulphate of cinchonidine also,
and after a somewhat extended trial of both, I consider the latter in doses varying from
10 to 20 grains more efficacious. In severe cases of the remittent or continued type, I
generally resort to quinine by mouth, per rectum, and subcutaneously, in accordance with
indications of the particular case under treatment. The new preparations of salicis cortex
or willow bark, salicylic acid and its salts, namely salicylate of soda and potash are, as far as
my own somewhat limited experience goes, very valuable medicinal agents for the reduction
of high temperatures, which they do very satisfactorily, whether the pyrexia be of
malarial or inflammatory affections. Beyond this they do not possess any antiperiodic
virtues. The sulphate of atropia administered hypodermically in one-hundredth part of
a grain, reduces hyperpyrexia. In a case of severe remittent I found the cold bath and
affusion very useful in reducing the high temperature which menaces life: in this case the
baths had to be repeated several times in the twenty-four hours and for eight days. Directly
the temperature was lowered to the normal degree, quinine was perseveringly employed by
mouth and through the skin, with the happy result that the case terminated in recovery. In
cases of dysentery, more especially of a scorbutic nature, I beg to remark, that bael is a very
useful remedy. I found that the fruit as supplied from the stores was two dry and did not
answer so well as fresher samples obtained from the jungles. Recently in Augur, I had the
opportunity of treating a case of severe tetanus (in the person of a young peon) with cannabis
Indica administered through the lungs, by making the patient smoke, in doses of from 15 to
20 grains, of the powdered leaves with about three times its bulk of ordinary tobacco. The
patient was continuously kept under its influence with very favourable results and the term
i-nation of the case in recovery. I believe that opium, belladonna, and other anti-spasmodic
drugs, would likewise prove of much greater avail when thus administered. The reason of
this belief is further strengthened from the fact that one of the ways, indeed the commonest,
in which death takes place is by sudden apnœa; it is clear therefore that the physiological
action of these drugs would be more direct, quicker, greater and more lasting on the dia
-phragm and other respiratory muscles, than when given in the ordinary way. I believe, also,
that it is for these identical reasons, that chloroform when inhaled proves much more
successful than when exhibited by mouth. I would most respectfully commend the plan to
the notice of those in charge of large civil institutions, where opportunities occur with fre
-quency, and where there are facilities for giving full effect to the treatment by isolation and
removal of all causes that are likely to counteract the anti-spasmodic narcotic effects of these
drugs.
Inspection, by Deputy Surgeon General WYLLIE.
Inspected 18th December, 1878. Hospital ample and excellent, and all its details in
satisfactory order. Health at date normal; but was less favourable than ordinary owing to
cholera in June and relatively large incidence of ague in autumn. Mortality has also been
exceptionally high for this sulubrious station. Lines clean, trim, and in good order; sullage
from family quarters received in vessels outside, and thence removed twice daily under proper
supervision. The regimental garden still continues to prosper, and without auy extraneous
assistance shows a credit balance. Men and officers have alike expressed to me their appre
-ciation of a boon which costs the sepoy only 6 pies a month; and the medical officer has
stated that while the Infantry are entirely free from scurvy, the, men of the Central India
Horse, of finer physique and generally flesh eating, are tainted with that disease, and he
attributes the immunity of the former to the fresh vegetable diet. Unfortunately conditions
elsewhere are by no means so favourable for gardening as they are here, suitable ground is
either inconveniently distant or water supply defective, but at Mhow I think there would
be a chance of success if the same excellent management could be counted on.
Requirements and recommend
-ations.
Special observations and new
experiments in treatment, sanita-
tion, &c. &c.