62
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
Duties, exercise, and amuse
-ments: their effects on health.
6. The duties consist of parades and guards, musketry
in the season, and occasional escort duty to Ahmedabad or
Mandvie. Amusements are chiefly shooting.
7. The hospital is one of the best in the Bombay Presidency, situate on high ground, well
exposed to every good wind, but sheltered from the N.E.
winds by a long range of hills. It is well ventilated by three
ridge ventilators, and has two capital verandahs, each capable
of accommodating sixteen beds. There is a store, bathing, and
spare room for special cases, lately made under the southern verandah, and a capital dispen
- s a r y a n d s u r g e r y i n t h e n o r t h e r n v e r a n d a h . T h e h o s p i t a l i s a t p r e s e n t i n v e r y g o o d r e p a i r .
8. The general health and physique of the men has considerably deteriorated from the
date of arrival of the regiment from Satara, four years ago.
The men have lost flesh and spirits. They are very liable to
have scurvy, and unable to undergo any prolonged or great exertion. The death rate is
about 13.15 per thousand per year, and the invaliding about 36.54. The chief disease is
intermittent fever, which certainly weakens the men a good deal.
9. The climate of Bhuj is a trying one in the summer months; fearful dust-storms come
from the west, and, the soil being sandy, there is no vegetation
or grass on it to check the storm. The redeeming feature is
the cool nights, due to the sea breeze from the Gulf of Cutch.
After the rains, which this year were very heavy for Catch (15 inches), we get north-east
and easterly winds from the Runn, which bring fever into camp.
10. The chief disease here is intermittent fever, from which cause alone there were
297 cases treated in hospital last year; of scurvy there were
10 cases, bronchitis 29, muscular rheumatism and lumbago
34, primary syphilis 10, and chronic rheumatism 8. Of bronchial catarrh there were 44, of
gonorrhœa 8, and bubo 7 cases; and of contusions 87 cases, which with other diseases
make a total of 764 cases treated.
11. There were 9 deaths, 5 in hospital and 4 out of hospital; of the 5 who died in
hospital two died of remittent, and one of continued fever, one
from hæmoptysis, and one from having eaten a large quantity
of crude opium. Of the 4 who died out of hospital two were unfits sent to be invalided at
Bombay—one of these dying from disease of the lungs, the other from old age; one was
found drowned in a pool of water in the nullah at Bhuj; and the fourth died at Bombay
(disease unknown).
Hospital and its surroundings:
present condition, hygienic or
otherwise.
General health and physique.
Influence of climate or local
circumstances on health.
Details of treated.
Mortality and its causes.
Epidemics.
12. There have been no epidemics.
13. There were 94 primary vaccinations and 7 re-vaccinations. Those re-vaccinated
were the wives of men returning from furlough. The 91 vacci
-nations were all children, with the exception of 7 recruits.
Only one case of small-pox occurred, and on him the marks
of previous vaccination were very obscure. He made a good recovery.
14. There were 25 men invalided—9 from diseases of the lungs, 5 from old age and
debility, 1 from rheumatic affection, 3 from scurvy, 3 from impaired
vision, and one each from disease of the stomach and intestines,
constantly recurring attacks of fever, leprosy, and injury to the thigh bone.
15. Under this head I should recommend that more conservancy carts be allowed to
the regiment, and that the latrines be brought into use, as
undoubtedly the men often use the open country (and that part
of it in the neighbourhood of the lines, between the lines and
the city) for purposes of nature, in preference to the trenches.
Inspection by Deputy Surgeon-General WYLLIE.
Inspected 11th February. The ratio of treated has been gradually increasing since 1875,
when it stood at the exceptionally low figure of 49.48 to strength. This, while doubtless due
in part to lengthened residence, is still largely accounted for by ague in connection with
heavy rainfall in September, the admissions under that head having risen from 78 in the
above year to 294 in the past. Nevertheless a fair average standard of health was maintained
Vaccination and re-vaccina
-tion.
Invaliding and its causes.
Requirements and recommen
-dations.