NORTHERN DIVISION OF THE ARMY.
29
5.
Food is very expensive, the grain compensation at times amounting to Rs. 7-8-0.
Fresh vegetables are very difficult to get for eight or nine
months in the year. Mutton is cheap and good. Beef is not
allowed to be killed in the neighbourhood of Cutch. Clothing is red uniform, except for
four or five months in the hot weather, when the men wear white.
6.
The duties are not too heavy. When the running drill was commenced, however,
in the beginning of November, there was a very cold north-
east wind blowing, and in two or three days the increase of
admissions into hospital was so great that I recommended the
running drill should be stopped for some weeks. This was done, and when the running
drill was resumed in January, it was found to have no ill effects.
There is no gymnasium, the one left by the 11th Regiment having been sold for firewood
and old iron. Carpet-making, basket-making, boot-making, carpentering, blacksmiths'
work, tailoring, &c., are done by the sepoys. There is a native library. Native sports, and.
other athletics, as hurdle and flat races, the tug-of-war, &c., are encouraged.
7.
The hospital is all that can be desired: it affords
accommodation for 28 patients without crowding, and 28 more
can be put in the verandahs.
The ventilation is good. The conservancy cart attends daily. There are two bheesties,
who bring drinking water from a well three-fourths of a mile off; another well 120 paces to
the rear of the hospital supplies ablution water. The second class hospital servants' quarters
are very dilapidated, and most of them are unfit to live in.
There is accommodation for one Hospital Assistant only. This, however, is of little con-
sequence, as there is a deserted European hospital in the same compound, in one of the houses
of which the Regimental Hospital Assistant and Kutch Agency Hospital Assistant live.
8.
The health of the regiment seems very fair. The regiment came in a very debili-
tated state from Rajkote and Tanna at the beginning of the
year, and is now decidedly improved. The recruits and young
soldiers seem very promising, but there are a large number of men over 20 years' service,
who certainly ought to be pensioned. They can do their duty and keep off the sick list as
long as the regiment is stationary, but they would be quite unfit for active service, or even
. for an ordinary march in time of peace—a fact I have personally witnessed as I marched with
the right wing of the regiment about 160 miles. 71 of these were sent up to Bombay by the
regimental invaliding committee, out of which number, 29 were returned to us as fit for
active service.
9. The climate is decidedly agreeable. On two days, viz., May 22nd and 23rd, the ther-
mometer in the shade registered 115°; these were considered
two of the hottest days known here for years. For many
weeks the thermometer reached 105° and over, but during this
time the nights were usually pleasant. The lowest temperature registered was 46° in January.
There is usually a strong wind blowing day and night: for nine months in the year the wind
is westerly. October as usual was very hot and oppressive. The only known local influence
on health is 6,000 square miles of the Runn of Kutch drying up every autumn, about twenty
miles to the north-east of cantonment, and the north-east winds in October always increase
the daily number of sick in consequence. The sudden variations in the daily temperature
also possibly predispose, if not excite, disease, the maximum and minimum thermometer
often differing over 30° in the twenty-four hours.
10.
During the year there were 1,159 admissions, equal to 192.8 per cent. of the
strength present. There were 16 deaths, or 2 . 6 per cent. of
strength. There were 860 cases of ague, 24 of remittent fever,
50 of rheumatism, 43 of wounds and accidents, 17 eye diseases, and 3 venereal. There was
no cholera and no small-pox. Stone and gravel are common in the neighbourhood. I
operated successfully on one boy for stone. I had another case of stone in a sepoy, but he
passed the stone through the urethra. The absence of venereal disease is worthy of remark,
and is unaccounted for, as a very virulent type of syphilis is supposed to prevail in Bhuj city.
The local fever is not usually of a severe type, and is comparatively rarely accompanied by
visceral complaints. A. large number of men perform their duties with fever on them, and
the notes of the cases taken during the year show that the majority of the men suffered
from fever 6, 8, or 10 days before applying for admission into hospital.
11.
There were 16 deaths in the year; of these, 10 were in hospital, and were,
5 quotidian ague, 1 remittent fever, 1 pneumonia, complicated
with a large abscess of the liver, 1 perforating peritonitis,
Food and clothing.
Duties, exercise, and amuse-
ments; their effect on health.
H o s p i t a l a n d i t s i m m e d i a t e
surroundings; hygienic or other-
wise.
General health and physique.
Influence of climate or local
circumstances on health.
Details of treated.
Mortality and its Causes.