40
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
furnished the percentage of cases in which the eruption was found is as given in the
Corps.
Admis-
sions.
No of Cases withErup
-
tions.
Per -
centage.
Head-Quarters Sappers and
Miners
...
...
...
220
6
2.72
23rd Regiment W.L.I.
...
18
. . .
...
36th
do.
N.I.
...
33
4
12.12
39th
do.
do.
...
63
6
9.52
2nd
do.
L.C.
...
15
. . .
...
4th
do.
N.I.
6
3
50.00
16th
do.
do. ...
...
94
65
69.15
Total...
449
84
18.71
margin. If the returns are reliable, the
eruption was much more prevalent at
Bellary than at Bangalore. In other re-
spects, except that the type of the disease
was altogether milder, symptoms were
much the same, and followed much the
same course as marked the affection in
other places, and as are recorded in such
accounts of the disease as are embodied
in standard medical works or which have
appeared in the periodical medical litera-
ture of the day. There is no record of
a single death from the disease in Banga-
lore.
Disease at
Bellary.
Cholera.
Disease at Bellary.—At Bellary a few cases also occurred, and here also there was no
widespread existence of the disease. The 16th Regiment suffered the most. It had 94
cases. The 2nd Regiment L. C. contributed 15, and the 4th Regiment N. I. only 6.
At this station the first case recorded occurred in the week ending 30th August, but it
was not till the 43rd week, ending the 25th October, that the disease established itself as
an epidemic.
In both stations (Bangalore and Bellary) the disease was subsiding at the close of the
year.
The districts under my medical superintendence have, therefore, as I have showed, been
but lightly touched by a disease which has prevailed so extensively, and caused so much
suffering in other parts of the presidency, and of India generally.
Cholera .—This disease has not contributed a single case among the troops in either
army division under my superintendence ; but amongst the civil community a few deaths
are recorded. The deaths in Mysore are returned at 51, and in the Ceded Districts at 124,
123 of which latter occurred in the Kurnool, and one in the Bellary District. No death is
recorded in the Cuddapah District.
In my last annual report it was shown that, at the close of the year 1870, the disease
prevailed on the Western Coast in the province of Malabar and Canara, and that early in
the year 1871, at the end of January, it invaded the province of Mysore, gaining entrance
by one or other of the main lines of communication.
It first appeared in Hoonsoor and subsequently spread to Frazerpett in Coorg and to
certain parts of the Mysore District, especially to the town of Mysore itself, where it created
some havoc. It died out towards the end of June. But in November a localized outbreak
of short duration occurred in the Kolar District, apparently imported from Muddenapully,
in the Sub-Collectorate of Bellary. In the Ceded Districts the disease also appeared in
January 1871 amongst a party of travellers between Ghooty and Kurnool, but did not
extend itself, and quickly subsided. At Cuddapah a rather formidable outbreak occurred
on the 24th February, and the disease lasted 64 days. By the close of the year the disease
appears to have died out, no deaths being recorded during December within the province
of Mysore or the districts of Kurnool and Cuddapah, though 38 deaths are recorded in that
week in the Bellary District.
But towards the close of 1871 the disease was active in Oude and parts of Lower Bengal,
and early in 1872 spread to the north-west of India and to the Punjaub, and, as in March, it
found its way to the Northern Districts of this presidency. Fear was entertained that a wave
might spread over the whole of Southern India by the tracks taken in former epidemics,
and this fear was apparently to be realized ; for still later in the year the disease continued
its southern progress by both of those routes, deaths being reported at Nagpore, Hyderabad,
Goolburga, Kurnool, and certain villages in that district ;* while the wave which entered
the presidency by the coast route extended as far south as Nellore. A writer on public
health in the August number of the Madras Medical Journalw a s j u s t i f i e d i n a s s u m i n g f r o m
these facts that the probabilities were, " from all concurrent history," that the western and
southern extension of the disease would gain head during the latter months of the year 1872,
or beginning of the year 1873.
So far as the close of the year 1872 is concerned these predictions have not been fulfilled;
no further southern extension of the disease has occurred ; and at the time I write
(January 1873) the disease appears to be quite dormant in both army divisions of my charge.
The following are the deaths for each month of the year in the Mysore Division and
Ceded Districts recorded against the general population :—
* The Acting Civil Surgeon, Kurnool, submitted a report upon this outbreak, which is before the Inspector-
General, and which may be referred to for a detailed history.