81
NORTHERN AND MHOW DIVISIONS OF THE ARMY.
whole, the men were below par, and not in the best condition to resist the united influences
of bad water and malaria, which render a station like Nusseerabad not the most desirable for
a Regiment lately fever-stricken.
The diseases which have prevailed the most have been fevers of malarious origin, and
affections of the respiratory and digestive organs.
The hospital accommodation has been sufficient; one instance was met with, however, in
which it was quite the reverse. This was in the hospital at Mehidpore which contained the
sick of the head quarters 15th Regiment N. I., Mehidpore being from sanitary causes a very
unhealthy station. The hospital is much too small; it consists of one ward only, having a
superficial area of 1,238 feet and of cubic feet 19,189; this apportioned to 18 patients, gives
68 superficial and 1,066 cubic feet to each. During the rains the accommodation is far too
small; the sanitary condition of the lines of this Regiment (15th N. I.) is decidedly bad.
They ar e si t uat ed on a "dead l evel —t he soi l a heavy bl ack l oam; i t r equi r es but a smal l amount
of rain to convert the whole into a swamp.
In only three instances have I observed the "dry conservancy" system thoroughly
carried out. One or two charges have a kind of half-and-half system, which when held forth
as a specimen of its working, only misleads, and would be far better let alone. The Regi
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ments I refer to in which the details are carefully attended to and the results satisfactory,
are the 15th Regiment N. I. at Mehidpore, the Malwa Bheel Corps at Dohud, and last and
best of all, the 4th Regiment N. I. at Baroda, in which the whole plan is so admirably carried
out as to leave nothing to be desired.
With reference to the Lock Hospitals in the Northern and Mhow Divisions of the Army,
I have shown when speaking of them severally, how small is the amount of real benefit these
institutions confer in the way of protecting soldiers and others from the consequences arising
from illicit and promiscuous intercourse. The cantonments in which these are found are all,
with the exception of the one at Ahmedabad, surrounded by foreign territory. Within camp
limits British rule alone extends, but even here, so various are the artifices adopted by the
women and connived at by the Police, that a very small proportion of the former, who are
known to practise prostitution in the bazaar, and are inhabitants of it, are registered in the
books of the Cantonment Magistrate. On any extra pressure being put upon these women, they
have only to stop beyond the limits of camp, whence they go and come at pleasure or exercise
their calling without let or hindrance. Numbers of women likewise, employed on the Public
Works, grass cutters and others, whose occupations bring them almost daily into camp, practise
prostitution more or less. This clandestine prostitution is the worst of all and the
most difficult to control. The villages contiguous to these cantonments are well known to
shelter numbers of women, with whom both European and Native soldiers constantly consort,
and for whom they evince a preference over the known women in the bazaar. These being
under no medical supervision are nearly all diseased; and until some steps are taken to have all
such persons registered, it is hopeless to expect any great diminution of venereal disease.
Within an easy three miles of the cantonment of Ahmedabad is the town numbering
12,000 inhabitants. The Act does not embrace it, and it is not difficult therefore to under
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stand the almost negative benefits resulting from a Lock Hospital so situated.
21 s