Water-supply.
Provisions.
Foot soreness
from defec
-tive boots.
Duty and exer-
cises.
Drill.
Exercises.
CENTRE, OR PRESIDENCY, DISTRICT.
15
Water-supply .—There is a large and sufficient supply of good water fit for drinking,
which is obtained from eight wells in the lines. No recommendations with regard to it have
been found necessary.
Provisions .—Provisions have been cheap and plentiful. Vegetables were abundant at
the station. The troops have received rice money every month.
Foot-soreness from defective boots .—There have been very few cases of foot-soreness,
and they have almost all got well in a few a days by being excused from wearing their
boots on my recommendation.
Duty and exercises .—The duty has consisted of the usual parades and guards; it
has not been excessive in amount, nor prejudicial to the health of the men. Average num
-ber of nights in bed three out of four.
Drill .—The influence of drills on health has not been injurious, and no recommendations
have been found necessary.
Exercises .—There is no gymnasium. The men sometimes play cricket. No recommenda
-tions on this subject have been thought necessary. Many of the men go through gymnastic
exercises at their usual feasts. Gardens have been laid out in the lines ; but since the regiment
has received orders about moving to Vizagapatam, the men have given up cultivating
them.
Vaccination .—Vaccination has been regularly kept up in the corps. No cases or
deaths from small-pox have occurred among men properly vaccinated, 102 men were
re-vaccinated during the year, of these 64 cases were successful, in 25 a modified vesicle was
obtained, and in 13 no effect was produced.
Diseases.—Twelve cases of diarrhœa and fifteen of dysentery were admitted during the
year. There was no cholera, and the only epidemic which prevailed among the men was
dengue. This disease broke out on the 28th of April and rapidly extended among the men
and their families. Most of the families in the lines suffered severely from it, and of the men
389 had the disease, of whom 387 returned to their duty after an absence from it of about
ten days on an average. The other two men were recovering from ague when they were
attacked with dengue, and as they were very much weakened by the successive influences
of the two diseases, they were granted sick leave to their villages. The last case of dengue
was admitted into hospital on the 2nd October. At the connnencement of the epidemic the
fever was usually stronger and the pains were more severe than towards its close, but at
the latter period the pains seemed though less severe to be more enduring. From the
general way in which this disease prevailed, and the wide field over which it swept, no
locality, no race, and no class being exempt from it, there is no doubt but that it was not
attributable to local causes. At the same time, it has been seen that the epidemic influence
was most active in the small and ill-ventilated houses of the natives, the families of the
officers not suffering nearly so much as those of the men. That the disease was not conta
-gious has been shown in numerous instances, by whole families having been attacked at
about the same time, and it is worthy of remark that in some cases one or two individuals
out of a household, who have suffered, have escaped the disease altogether. The first cases
that are said to have occurred in Madras were sailors, who were brought ashore from the
ship Bonnie Dundee. As a rule people were only once attacked with the disease, but a few
of the sepoys had it twice, and one man (a Brahmin) had three distinct attacks. He
was first admitted on 15th July, and was under treatment until the 18th, when he was
allowed convalescent leave in the lines for two or three days. He next came to hospital with
a number of boils on both lower extremities, and was under treatment from 10th to 17th
August, when he was placed on the convalescent list for a few days. During the first two days
of this period he had fever, which I ascribed to the irritation caused by the boils. He was
again in hospital for dengue from 24th to 27th August. The pains which accompanied
and followed the fever were severe, and there was considerable swelling of the lower
extremities, which, however, did not last long, and he returned to his duty after a few days
on the convalescent list. He was again treated for dengue from 8th to 14th September. The
fever was higher this time, and all the symptoms rather more severe than on the two former
occasions. In almost all the cases patients were first attacked by pains, which frequently
commenced in the fingers and toes and extended up the limbs ; these were followed by head
-ache and fever, accompanied by burning heat of skin. The fever was of the continued type
and generally lasted for about two days. The patients were generally very weak after the
fever, and some of them suffered from the pains for a considerable period. It may be interest
-ing to state that this disease was first described by Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, U. S., in the
year 1780, under the name of bilious remitting fever. In 1824 it prevailed at Calcutta and
Madras, and in 1827 an epidemic of it broke out in the West Indies, when it first received
the name of dengue. The ventilation of the hospital has been good, and overcrowding was
obviated by sending the convalescents to the lines while it remained necessary to do so.
There have been no defects in drainage, with the single exception that the drain near the
hospital became choked up on some accidental cause, but the matter was reported, and it
was quickly set right. No defects in latrines or water-supply ; no want of cleanliness ; no
defects in diet or clothing ; no extra fatigue or exposure ; no climate peculiarities or intemper-
Vaccination.
Diseases.