131
Removal of camp to
opposite back of the
river Irrawady.
on the 13th instant, the local Military and Medical authorities
arranged for the movement of the troops to the opposite bank
of the river. An elevated site was chosen, and on the 16th,
19th, and 20th April, respectively, the B., G., and L. Companies, and the Band
and Drummers were sent across the river and encamped on this ground. No
cases occurred in the new camp until the 20th, when a man of the Gr. Company
(which had crossed the river the day before) was seized and died very rapidly.
Several cases of " diarrhoea" were reported also in all the companies.
Prevalence of diar-
rhoea both in camp and
barracks.
170. During all these days no cases of cholera occurred amongst the troop3
remaining in barracks, but Dr. Thompson reports that there
was a good deal of diarrhoea and much debility, especially
amongst women and children. The Battery of Artillery had
only a single case of cholera on the 7th instant, cholera prevailed to some slight
extent amongst the natives of the cantonment.
Fresh cases in bar-
racks on 20th April.
171. On the night of the 20th April two children were attacked in No 12
Family Barracks in Thayetmyo. The rooms were immediately
evacuated and purified. No further case in the cantonment
occurred on this occasion. About the end of May, after the return of the affected
troops to cantonment, there was another outbreak, confined chiefly on this occa-
sion to the Royal Artillery which had furnished only a single case during the
epidemic intensity in the 76th Regiment.
Cessation of epidemic
in camp on 21st April.
172. On the afternoon of the 21st April, the Roman Catholic Chaplain, who
had been indefatigable in his attendance on the sick in the
hospital camps, was seized with cholera and died on the 23rd.
This was the last case connected with the camp. On the 2nd May the men
returned to their barracks in Thayetmyo.
173. The general health of the Regiment appears to have undergone a great
deterioration during the presence of choleraic influences in the station.
For some weeks subsequently, notwithstanding all that was done for their
comfort, the men suffered greatly from the depressing influences that had
surrounded them.
Report of the Princi-
pal Medl. Officer on the
health of the Regt.
The Principal Medical Officer, British Burmah, inspected the Regiment on
the 13th June, when he found a large number of sick in
hospital and a still larger number unfitted for duty.
He remarks :—" I satisfied myself that the health of the Regiment was
unquestionably bad. The symptoms from which the men suffer are extreme
debility, with pains in the back and limbs ; a small weak quick pulse ; a white
flabby tongue, marked distaste for food, and in some instances slight diarrhoea,
with a general feeling of malaise; there is tendency to syncope and giddiness;
the countenance is anxious ; the eyes hollow and dark around their orbits ; and
the face suffused with pallor, and a general expression denoting debility.
To such an extent were the symptoms and signs of weakness present, and
so long had these men been attending hospital without the least amelioration
of their condition, that I considered it necessary to select fifty-four of their number
for change, with a conviction that they would not regain their health at
Thayetmyo. "
L L