37
MYSORE DIVISION.
Lavatories and Baths.—The men, most of them bathe in the narrow yards enclosing
their huts, though some resort to tanks and wells in the neighbourhood of the lines.
Water-supply .—Two deep wells—one about 500 yards to the east of the lines, the other
about half this distance to the west—afford an abundant supply of drinking water. Three
other wells yield a brackish water used in bathing and other domestic purposes. The
water in use has been analyzed. The result is satisfactory.
Recreation .—Gardening, cricket-playing, &c. ; sufficient.
Duties.—Regimental and garrison guards, parades, drills, cleaning arms and accou-
trements, and they are not prejudicial to health.
Conservancy .—Satisfactory.
Hospital .—On the present occasion the inspection of the hospital afforded satisfactory
proofs of a well-arranged interior economy and management on the part of the Medical
officer. The buildings in connexion with the hospital are two small detached tile-roofed
buildings, each of one room, and situated one on either side of the main entrance into the
narrow compound in which the hospital is situated. One of these buildings is used as a
hospital guard-room, the other as a surgery. The latrine is about 30 paces to the rear
of the hospital. It is a large structure on the trench plan, and, from faulty structure, with
difficulty kept clean. Dry earth and coal tar are assiduously applied, but fouling of the sides
of the trenches and lodgment of ordure, partly arising from the difficulty of inducing the
sepoys to use the latrine, aught, but, chiefly owing to faulty structure, the effects of these
agents are reduced to a minimum.
Principal diseases .—The principal diseases for the year were dengue 540, ague 46,
rheumatism 14, skin affections 24, bronchitis 12. Sick in hospital this day 14, viz., ague 4,
chronic rheumatism 1, epilepsy 1, bronchitis 2, dysentery 1, diarrhoea 1, boil 2, itch 1, and
sprain 1.
Vaccination .—Vaccinated during the year 20, successful 16, unsuccessful 4.
Out of a regimental strength of 478, I examined 271 ; and of the numbers thus examined,
there were found, exclusive of men with marks of vaccination or of previous variolous dis-
ease, 195 men wholly without marks of vaccination.
Recreation.
Duties.
Conservancy.
hospital.
Principal dis-
eases.
Vaccination.
Lavatories
and Baths.
Water-supply
MYSORE DIVISION.
Average daily strength present during the year
......
...
.... .
4,069
Do.
sick per cent. to the average strength... ...
. .
...
3 . 0 2
Ratio of mortality per cent. to the average strength
... ... ...
..
0.63
As the Deputy Surgeon-General of the Mysore Circle has also administra-
tive charge of the Ceded Districts, he has embraced the medical and sanitary
history of both ranges in his annual report. Deputy Surgeon-General Ranking
was in charge of the two districts throughout 1872, and I beg to submit below
his annual report unabridged :—
MYSORE DIVISION AND CEDED DISTRICTS, 1872.
ANNUAL MEDICAL REPORT.
MILITARY.
1. The meteorological and medical annals of the year 1872 are more specially marked
by a rainfall considerably above the average, attended by storms and floods and by the
invasion of the greater part of India by the disease known as " dengue."
The public health of the districts under my medical superintendence has been fair, and
those districts were much more lightly visited by the epidemic above referred to, than other
parts of the presidency.
Epidemic cholera, the disease which so largely governs mortality whether in civil or
military life, was almost absent, but small-pox was rather widely diffused at the earlier part
of the year, and fevers of malarious type were, by report, unusually prevalent.
METEOROLOGY.
2. The meteorological features of the Mysore Division can be studied only from the
results obtained at the Observatory at Bangalore, the only one at present in the province.
Table A. in the Appendix shows the mean results for each week of the year, with quarterly
and annual means, which, as compared with the two preceding years, read as follows :
—
10