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15. There were only 11 cases of small-pox, whereas last year there were 63.
This year there were no deaths from this disease.
16. There were 100 cases of cholera throughout the year, being only 0.2
per cent. of the total admissions, against 86 cases, or
0.2 per cent., last year. Cholera, however, gave 68
deaths in the present year, whereas last year there were only 49.
17. There were 46 cases of chicken-pox and 15 cases of measles, but not a
single case of enteric fever is reported amongst the troops.
18. As regards the influence of climate on both Europeans and Natives, it
appears from the history of the past year that the
stations in the Bombay Presidency, taken altogether,
are fairly healthy for a tropical climate, those badly reported on being very few
in number.
At Nusseerabad the rainfall was 23.9 inches against 19.4 inches in the
previous year. Malarial fevers were very prevalent, together with scurvy—the
latter is attributed to the high price of vegetables. Neemuch and Rajkote
were also very malarious for the same reason. At Hydrabad much of the fever
is due to the swamping of the ground when the river is high for the purpose
of nourishing the trees in the cantonment. At Deesa the percentage of sick
in the 26th Regiment was very high throughout the year, but in the 3rd Light
Cavalry the percentage is very much lower, and the Medical Officer, speaking
of the climate, simply calls attention to the fact that the detachments at Palun-
poor very frequently contract syphilis. Surgeon Parakh, of the 6th Regiment,
reports unfavourably of the climate of Mhow, and supposes it to have an injurious
influence on the health of the sepoys on account of the great diurnal change.
This is very marked at Bhooj, where the difference between the maximum and
minimum thermometer has been as much as 30° in 24 hours. In some stations,
which are in themselves healthy, the cantonments are rendered less salubrious by
certain local conditions, thus at Poona the lines of the 2nd Light Cavalry are
in close proximity to irrigated fields, and are badly drained, giving an average
daily sick of 4.3 per cent. to strength, against 1.7 and 2.6 for the two previous
years, respectively, when the regiment was at Deesa. Again, at Belgaum paddy
fields are close to one extremity of the lines, and it is an important fact that there
were 245 admissions for malarial fever amongst the men of the Left Wing, which
was near the paddy fields, whilst only 129 cases were furnished by men of the
Right Wing, which was quartered at the further end of the lines, and the cases
from the former were also less tractable than those of the latter. As regards Dhar-
war the decrease of sickness in the 17th Regiment after its arrival is very striking,
though Surat, where it had previously been stationed, is itself comparatively
healthy. In 1877 there were 1,501 admissions, in 1878 there were 1,130, whereas
in 1879, when the regiment moved to Dharwar, there were only 617.
In Table F, the regiments, with the principal stations at which they have
been during the year, are arranged in the order of sickness, the ratio per cent. of
admissions to average strength present being taken as the standard.
Small-pox.
Cholera.
Climate.