30
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
1 rheumatism, and 1 valvular disease of the heart. Of the 6 who died out of hospital, 1 was
dysentery, 1 was put down to general debility, 1 rheumatism, and in 3 the causes were
unknown.
12. None.
13. Eleven children were primarily vaccinated, 10 successfully. There are at the present
time 10 unprotected children; some of these are too young to
be vaccinated, others are sickly, and some have lately joined
the regiment. There were 39 recruits re-vaccinated, in whom there were 29 successful
cases. One European officer was successfully re-vaccinated.
14. Twenty-three men were pensioned for rheumatism, 2 for general debility, 1 for
quotidian ague and premature old age, 1 for cataract, 1 for
asthma, 2 for varicose veins, 1 for dementia, and 8 were pen-
sioned on account of having over 32 years' service.
15. New lines have been recommended, and are urgently
required.
Considering the isolated situation of the camp as regards communication with other
parts of India, I should certainly recommend that the regimental hospital be better supplied
with instruments as an exceptional case; say, with as many as is usually supplied to a second
rate civil hospital. The regiment has now been stationed at Bhuj for a year, and is
certainly very much more healthy than when it arrived. Nevertheless I should strongly
recommend its being sent to a Deccan station in December next, as by that time it will have
been in this neighbourhood eight years, viz., six at Rajkot and two at Bhuj.
The reason for my making this recommendation is as follows: the characteristic feature
of the malarial fevers of Kutch is that they are not usually accompanied by severe paroxysms,
and are not often fatal; but are so very persistent that men too often perform their duties
irrespective of having fever on them. I have had many men come to hospital for medicine
having been persuaded to do so by some officer who has seen them doing sentry and other
duties with the perspiration running down their faces from fever, or has seen them shivering.
I do not consider, therefore, that the number of admissions in the year to hospital is a fair
criterion of the health of the regiment, but makes it appear rather better than it really is.
16. Nothing of interest. The cinchona alkaloids, although
not usually causing gastric irritation, are almost useless in the
treatment of the local Kutch ague.
Inspection by Deputy Surgeon- General HEWLETT.
Inspected 12th February 1880. The regiment was stationed at Bhuj throughout the
year. It has improved in health since arrival at that station. Ague, which is endemic,
commenced to increase in the month of October, when 138 men were admitted with it. No
case of enteric fever occurred, and there were no epidemics among the native troops during
the year. The lines have been, I am informed, condemned for years past. They are very
bad both in design and construction. I recognise that everything is done that can be done
by the military authorities to keep them clean and to improve their condition as much as
possible, but they must always be bad and each year become worse, for as the sand drifts up.
against the walls of the external enclosures outside each hut, the original floor level of the
huts, which were built without plinths, becomes lower and lower. New lines, I am informed,
have been sanctioned, but I think the site selected is too much exposed to the N. E. wind.
The water-supply is derived from wells, and is said to be of fair quality. French latrines are
in use, and answer very well.
10th Regiment N. L. I.
NEEMUCH.—In medical charge of Surgeon-Major F. R. O'KEARNEY, M.D.
Average Strength
703
Deaths in Hospital
10
Do. present
617
Do. out of Hospital
1
Admissions
1,444
Invalided
51
Daily Sick
46.1
Sick Leave
44
Epidemics.
Vaccination and re-vaccination.
Invaliding and its causes.
Requirements and recommenda-
tions.
Special observations, new ex-
periences in treatment, sanitation,
&c.