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the regiment, and no control was exercised to see whether the men took the
dose or not. It is probable that not one man in ten ever took the quinine, for
very few European soldiers will take quinine, if they can possibly avoid doing
so, being in this respect far more difficult to deal with than natives. During
1902, however, all the troops were marched to the hospitals twice a week, and
the quinine was given under the supervision of a medical officer.
To this fact, therefore, I attribute in large measure the low admission rate
for malarial fevers among the British Infantry.
At any rate as regards the statistics of the British Infantry hospital also,
a certain margin must be allowed for errors in diagnosis. I am informed that
during 1901 it was the rule to admit every case of "fever" at once, and return it
as " ague." During 1902, much greater care was taken in diagnosis, and it is
even possible that in the British Infantry hospital some cases, which were really
cases of malarial fever, were returned under some other heading; for it is
difficult to believe that during August and September not a single case of
malarial fever should have occurred among over 300 men, at a time when the
endemic index of the regimental bazaar was increasing rapidly, (15 per cent. in
August and 32 per cent. in September), and when, from the reports of British
officers living in the lines, a large number of native servants were suffering from
malarial fever.*
The events which happened in 1902 render it very difficult to form a correct
estimate from hospital statistics of the efficacy of the operations of mosquito
destruction and of the other measures carried out in the Royal Artillery lines.
These events were the arrival of a second regiment into the British Infantry
lines at the beginning of October, and the departure of both batteries of Royal
Artillery to Delhi at the end of that month. At the most important time of
the year, therefore, the statistics of the Royal Artillery were rendered valueless,
because after about the 4th of October any man of the Royal Artillery who was
attacked with malaria on the line of march to Delhi was returned to Mian Mir
and admitted into the hospital there. Mian Mir was in fact kept as a sick
depôt to which the men who fell ill on the line of march were returned. For
this reason the statistics for men of the Royal Artillery during November show
9 admissions for malarial fever out of a strength of 54 and during December
16 admissions out of a strength of 47. The inclusion of these figures in the
annual return has made it appear that the ratio of admissions per 1,000 among
* Seventy-eight admissions into the station hospital at Mian Mir during 1902 were returned as having
been due to congestion of the liver. The number is considerably larger than in any previous year on
record and it is very probable that in ordinary years many of these cases would have been returned under
the heading of ague. The monthly numbers of cases returned as congestion of the liver were : 0 in January,
reach in February and March, 7 in April (after the commencement of the ante-malaria operations), 6 in
May, 9 in June, 28 in July, 13 in August, 6 in September, 7 in October, and 1 in November. It may also
be mentioned that there were 34 cases returned as simple continued fever during 1902 as compared with
only 1 in 1901.
H