188
SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
cularly obstinate and only improving on the approach of the cold season. They were
nearly all of them examples of the Sind sore. 13 children where successfully vaccinated.
There only remain 5 children unprotected, but on whom the operation will be performed when
old enough. No report has been made of any cases of revaccination. 9 men were invalided.
28. While the admissions in the 1st Regiment Sind Horse are one-third fewer than in
the 30th NJ., the percentage of treated to strength and deaths to treated are almost identical ;
the figures used in the one would be equally correct if employed for noting the same parti-
culars in the other. The numbers treated for the year show an increase of 65 over 1871 ; and
the deathrate is especially high, 3.6 being the ratio for the past year, whereas 2.5 was that
for the previous one. 405 cases of malarious fever were treated out of a strength of 354, with
only 1 death. Pneumonia figures largely: 2.3 admissions and 9 deaths being returned from this
disease alone. Dysentery gives 19 cases and 1 casualty ; and splenitis shows 14 admissions—a
circumstance not a little remarkable, seeing that not a single case of this disease has been
observed in any of the other regiments at Jacobabad, and only 2 others are recorded as having
occurred in one of the Belooch regiments. Boils and ulcers were numerous—52—and most of
them characterized with the special intractableness peculiar to this disease in Upper Sind.
Assistant Surgeon Banks has shewn great energy in getting many of the unprotected persons
in his regiment vaccinated. He reports 115 adults and 25 children to have been successfully
vaccinated. 15 men also were revaccinated, which proved successful in 6 of them ; considering
the extreme prejudices and almost insurmountable difficulties to be overcome among the men
of these regiments to vaccination, under any circumstances Dr. Banks deserves considerable
credit in having accomplished so much. 9 men were discharged with pension.
29. The 2nd Regiment Sind Horse, with a strength somewhat smaller and the admissions
also fewer in proportion, shows an average daily number of sick 21/2 times as large as that of
the 1st Regiment. The ratio of treated to strength is a few numerals higher, but the percen-
tage of deaths to strength and deaths to treated is the same as for the two regiments just
noticed. The admissions from malarious fevers are one-third more numerous during the year
under report than for the previous one ; and this disease has prevailed to a greater extent in
this regiment than in any of the others at Jacobabad ; 6 deaths have occurred from this cause
alone, which contrasts unfavourably with the mortality arising from intermittent and remittent
fevers in the remaining regiments in the province, which amounts to only Surgeon
Byramjee in his report draws attention to the statements he made in the previous year regard-
ing the satisfactory results obtained from the employment of "sulphites in the treatment of
ague, and which his experience of the past year fully confirms. He has found them particularly
useful in those cases of ague where the chylopoietic viscera are deranged, and where the
cinchona alkaloids do not succeed so well as they do in cases free from such complications ; and lie
likewise considers they are especially serviceable where cold has been the exciting cause, and
in which the sympathetic nerves are principally afected. Diseases of the respiratory system
return 25 patients, 18 of their being cases of pneumonia followed by 2 deaths ; a more
favourable result than was observed in the previous year, where 5 casualties followed twenty
admissions from this disease. Diseases of the digestive system have prevailed to a
much greater extent this year than in the former one, as has been observed in all the regi-
ments in Upper Sind ; and is easily explained by the unusual amount of rain, the heavy in-
undations, and the protracted period in the season, before the surface Of the country was
restored to its normal condition. 14 admissions from. dysentery are noticed against 5 in 1871 :
no casualties occurred. Diseases of the cellular and cutaneous system were numerous. 40
cases of abscess were admitted, with no diminution. to the usual list of boils and ulcers, which
amounted to 55. In the matter of vaccination 35 out of 36 cases were successful. Dr. Byramjee
mentions that even to obtain this number he was put to infinite trouble, and although he
personally appealed to several of the native officers on the subject, it was with the greatest
difficulty he succeeded in accomplishing what he did. The invalids amounted to 23.
30. The history of the 3rd Regiment Sind Horse does not materially differ from those
of the other two regiments. The average strength was 338, the admissions 770, and the deaths
10. The average daily number of sick was 3.3, percentage of treated to strength was higher
than in any other regiment, being 238 . 1 ; of deaths to strength 2.9, which again is lower than.
in the other regiments stationed at Jacobabad ; as was also that of the deaths to treated which
is 1 .2. Of intermittent and remittent fevers there have been 462 cases, which is in excess of
the previous year by 36. In that year there were but 2 casualties ; in the past, 4 have occurred.
from the above causes. Pneumonia returns only 11 cases with 1 death, against 21 admissions and
3 deaths for 1871; so that in this respect there is impiovement. Dysentery shows a slight increase
over the preyious year, 9 cases having been admitted ; but this is considerably below the num-
ber noted under this disease for the other regiments in Sind. Diarrhœa, however, has been more
prevalent and, with the exception of the :30th Regiment N.I., returns the largest number of cases.
Congestion of the spleen has been witnessed oftener among the men of this regiment than in.
any other: 11 cases have been admitted for treatment : whereas only one other regiment