46
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
being made to re-establish the trench system. The water-supply is obtained from wells;
the water is said to be abundant and of fair quality. The health of the regiment has not
been good, especially during the latter half of the year, when ague prevailed to a most unusual
degree, so much so that the regiment was quite for the time prostrate. During the months
of September and October there were 972 admissions into hospital, of which 889 were due
to malarial fever. The highest number on the sick list on any one day was 243 on the 22nd
September. I was extremely pleased with my inspection of the hospital, and I desire to
bring to the special notice of the Surgeon-General, the excellent manner in which Surgeon
-Major DeTatham has performed his duty. In every respect this hospital is quite one of the
best managed I have ever seen. His diaries of cases were all in his own handwriting and
carefully kept, and all his arrangements were excellent. The hospital, by a curious arrange
-ment, has been built on the very confines of the cantonment. During the year an objection
-able native village, Gowlipoora, complained of by my predecessor as being in the immediate
vicinity of the hospital, has been removed. The want of a dead-house is much felt. Quarters
have been erected for the hospital assistant, but there are none for the native medical pupils
who are consequently obliged to use one of the verandah rooms of the hospital. There was
of course great over-crowding in the hospital during the prevalence of the ague epidemic,
which, although it has abated, has left the men much reduced in strength.
24th Regiment N. I.
MEHIDPUR.—In medical charge of Surgeon J. A. HOWELL.
Average Strength . . . 715
Deaths in Hospital . . .
5
Do.
do.
present . . . 670
Do. out of Hospital . . .
0
Admissions . . . 1,623
Invalided . . .
15
Daily Sick . . . 28.7
Sick Leave . . .
5
Years.
Stations.
Rate per cent. to average
strength present of
Admissions. Daily Sick.
D e a t h s i n H o s p i t a l .
1876 . . .
Mehidpur and Augar . . .
120.7
2.8
1.0
1877 . . .
Do.
151.5
3.4
1.9
1878 . . .
Do.
182.3
3.8
1.9
Average . . .
151.5
3.3
1.6
1879 . . .
Mehidpur and Augur . . .
242.2
4.3
0.7
Location and movements.
1. The right wing and head-quarters were stationed here
at the beginning of the year, and were relieved by the left wing
from Augar last February.
2. The lines have been often reported on as being very indifferent. The quarters for
the married and single are the same, but in some cases a man
with a large family is provided with two sets of rooms. Com
-pared with the standard plan for native lines, they are greatly
wanting in superficial area and cubic capacity. Ventilation is also very defective, being
only by a door. The back of the rooms is a base wall; a small window to each room in this
situation would materially improve ventilation. The floor is pretty dry, but as the men
are provided with charpoys, the moisture from the ground, if any, cannot affect them.
Drainage is surface and pretty efficient; lines are in fair state of repair, and were, as
usual whitewashed thoroughly this year.
The lines and their surround
-ings; present condition, hygienic
and otherwise.
3. During the dry season the trench system is in use, and in the monsoon covered
latrines. The trench system answers very well. The covered
latrines used in the rains may be improved. New latrines
properly constructed were applied for by the Annual Committee for station buildings in 1878,
but this has not been attended to.
Conservancy.