89
SIND DISTRICT OF THE ARMY.
disabled a civilian from doing his duty, nor even an infantry soldier, being in parts which dis
-abled the sowars from riding. Other cases I am sorry to say were originally caused or
increased in size from neglect or intention so as to get off work. Having noticed the
most important of the diseases from which the Regiment suffered during the year, I proceed
to notice, as I did last year, about such matters as came under the eye of the Medical Officer,
and will begin likewise with—first, Recruiting. Last year in my annual report I made the fol
-lowing remarks : "Up till very lately recruits were taken in without medical examination.
The strict inspection the recruit has now to submit to under my hands is very unpleasant
to him and his friends ; but they will get accustomed to it, and the public service will benefit
by it. I have had to recommend 4 men to be discharged from the service who were of less
than two years' service ; these men and a great many more could never have passed even a
lenient medical inspection. I hope for the sake of the service, that the old system of taking
in recruits without medical examination will not be reverted to again, more particularly as
the Commanding Officers now have not the facility they had heretofore of discharging
any men they thought unfit."
I am sorrry to state that the Officiating Commandant has taken in some men who did not
pass the medical examination. It is for Government to consider how far that is desirable ;
I cannot give the exact number, as the information I asked for on the subject, was refused to
me by the Officiating Commandant. Second, Invaliding—the same remarks would apply this
year as I made last year. The remarks I made under the head of " hospital" last year, apply with
equal force this year—they were as follows : " Hospital.'—Here an objectionable system pre
-vails, which, although I have served in almost all parts of the Presidency, and with both Euro--
pean and native troops, I never came across before; it is that men on the sick list do not
remain in hospital, but are treated as out-patients, living in their lines, except those that abso--
lutely can't move, or particular cases the Medical Officer thinks it necessary should remain in
hospital. In former times when there were few men at head quarters and the Regiment was
more or less actively engaged all round the year in fighting with the robbers on the frontier,
when again a superior class of men enlisted for the sake of fighting and military glory, then
this system was not objectionable. But now all that is changed, and with it the hospital system
ought to be assimilated to that which obtains in the rest of the Army. Men living in the
lines go about where they like; seldom take their medicines properly ; often take country
medicine from quacks, taking hospital medicines home with them simply to throw them
away. It leaves room, very extensive too, for malingering, and what is still worse, when during
the cold weather, latent pneumonia invades their ranks, they suffer on account of this system.
Thus, a debilitated man (most of them are of a weak constitution, natural or acquired), is
suffering from fever or ulcer, or any such complaint, and comes out of his warm and stuffy
room into the cold, and, thinly clad (often and often I have had to scold them for sparing their
warm clothes and risking their lives), he gets chilled, and bronchitis or pneumonia (unfor
-tunately frequently in a latent state)is super added." All remarks in the last report regarding
exercise, dress, &c., might all be read over with this report, and I do not think it necessary
to repeat them.
I am sorry, however, to add that there was a great deal more malingering this year than
last year. Malingering can never be checked by the Medical Officer alone, without the help
of those who have the power to punish malingerers, either in the Navy or Army or Civil
Service. One man went so far that he came to me for a dose of medicine to escape punishment
for not going to parade, saying he overslept himself. Another man kept open a mere
abrasion of the cuticle for a long time, which on sealing up, so as to prevent access to it,
healed up in two days. I need not mention any more cases.
Vaccination.—There being rooted prejudices among the men, I alone, and unaided, can
-not do anything to get them to take to it, or even passively allow it to be done.
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