PRESIDENCY DIVISION, ADEN, AND BOMBAY MARINE.
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J u l y , we r e 8 8° 5 ' , 9 4° 1 ' , a n d 9 3°1 . Th e l o we s t t e mp e r a t u r e r e c o r d e d wa s 7 5° a t 6 A. M. , o n t h e 1 s t
February, and t he hi ghest 105° at 2 o' cl ock P. M. , on t he 30t h Jul y. The cl i mat e of Aden,
though considered healthy—tropical diseases being uncommon—is still very enervating. The
cold season, October to March, is cool, and to most people decidedly agreeable ; but it is not
sufficiently bracing to counteract the bad effects of the unbearable moist heat of the hot season,
which continues for nearly six months, and is not improved by occasional s hamals or dust
storms. Owing to the moisture of the atmosphere, and the scarcity of water, tatties cannot
be brought into use.
The lines are pucca buildings and look well from the outside but from the want of space
are closely built, and the rooms are small. A sepoy is supposed to
have a room about 11½ feet in length, 5½ in breadth, and (say) 1.0 in
height. In the lines for single men there are six rows, each consisting of four pendals and
two officers' houses. A wall runs down the centre of each pendal, dividing it into two long
rooms (each with 11 doors), which the sepoys have sub-divided by means of matting partitions.
In the lines for married men there are six pendals, containing altogether 84 rooms, separated
by pucca walls. These rooms measure 10 feet in length, 9 in breadth, and about 10 in height;
ventilation is aided by means of openings in the roof and walls. Calculating roughly, each
individual man, woman, and child, had a cubic space of about 400 feet. The families and
followers, however, were in excess of the authorized number. Cooking is carried on in all the
quarters at present, but the erection of suitable cookhouses is contemplated. Bathing accom-
modation is also conspicuous by its absence, the present arrangement being a shallow pit,
filled in with stones, either within or just outside the verandah door. At the suggestion of
the Deputy Inspector, these pits have been done away with, and surface drains are to be
substituted.
The latrines, three in number, two for the men and one for the women, and adjoining
_ _
each other, are about a hundred yards from the lines, and Just off the
main road. The accommodation is sufficient. They are cleaned
twice a day by the sweepers, the soil being removed in carts at night, and buried in Holkat's
Bay. Disinfectants are not allowed, and, as a consequence, the latrines are occasionally offen-
sive, especially during the hot months. Their construction is somewhat faulty, as the water
(abution, &c.) accumulates instead of running off into pans.
There are three urinals for men in the vicinity of the lines, but for the women there is
no provision of the kind whatever ; there should be four for men and
one for women. The present urinals are nuisances, as they are old,
insufficient, and disinfectants are not allowed.
The hospital and out-buildings are decidedly good, with ample accommodation both for
Regimental Lines.
Latrines.
Urinals.
Hospital.
patients and establishment. The situation is also good, but is unfor-
tunately about a mile distant from the lines. The hospital latrine
has been kept clean by the monthly expenditure of 40 lbs. of McDougal's powder.
The average strength of the regiment during the year was 642, of which number 466
Strength.
were stationed at head-quarters, within the crater, 126 at the isth-
mus position, and 50 at Perim outpost.
The annual returns include the men of the isthmus detachment, as that position is only
Isthmus Detachment.
about a mile distant from camp, and men requiring hospital treat-
ment resort to the head-quarters hospital.
The Perim detachment is in medical charge of an Assistant Anothecary who sends
separate returns direct to the Deputy Inspector-General. The men
whose turn it is for this duty, were always inspected with a view
to the rejection of all elderly, weak, or scorbutic men, and, generally, they enjoyed better
health there than they did at head-quarters. The detachment as a rule was relieved every
two months, but on one occasion it was not relieved for upwards of five months, without prov-
ing injurious to the health of the men. An allowance of limejuice and sugar is issued to the
men ; to insure their taking it, they are paraded for the purpose daily. The quality of the
limejuice, however, is very inferior, as it is supplied to the commissariat by a contractor,
who procures it from Bombay. For a part of the year the limejuice proposed for issue at Perim
was inspected arid reported upon by a committee ; but this was merely done as a matter of form,
as on one occasion, when it was rejected, the contractor discovered that he could procure
juice of superior quality in the immediate vicinity of the island of Perim, where no commit-
tee could be held. After the rejection of two or three supplies, committees on provision for
Perim were no longer asked to give an opinion as to the quality of the limejuice. The con-
sumption of limejuice in Aden must be considerable, and I, therefore, suggested that it should
be supplied by the Bombay Commissariat Office after it had been pronounced good by the
Chemical Analyser to Government.
Perim Detachment.