NORTHERN AND MHOW DIVISIONS OF THE ARMY.
61
Dr. Wakefield's observations recorded in the "monthly remarks" show that the effects of
the epidemic of the previous year still continued as evidenced by the weak state prevailing
generally among those who had been attacked, and by the marked tendency to relapse. The
number of cases during the latter part of the year rather increased, in proportion to what had
been admitted in the first eight months ; but I do not conclude from this, that the health of
the Regiment was worse than it had been in the first half of the year. The men treated in the
months of September, October, November, and December, suffered in race instances anything
that could be called an acute attack. The worst symptoms about them were their want of
tone and strength, and the prevalence of scurvy ; two conditions which acted and reacted on
one another, causing the frequent relapses noted above ; so that a large amount of stimulant
and nourishment formed in many cases a chief item in the treatment. During November and
December, more in the former than in the latter, congestion of the lung or bronchitis occurred
in about 10 or 12 per cent. of those stiffening from intermittent fever, but yielded to treatment
or subsided as soon as the fever was stopped. Two cases only of remittent fever have occurred
during the year, one in February and one in October. The latter would have been sent to
the Invaliding Committee in Bombay, had he been well enough to be moved; he was left in
Bhooj when the Regiment quitted that station for Ahmedabad. One case of mumps occurred
in the month of September, it was a mild case requiring no treatment beyond fomentation and
gentle purgatives and diaphoretics.
Under the head of chronic rheumatism 22 were admitted, 21 of whom came also under the
head of readmissions ; almost all of these were men of 13 years' service and upwards, with
weak constitutions; 8 of them were invalided by the General Invaliding Committee.
Ten cases of primary syphilis have occurred during the year ; 8 of these were admitted be-
-tween the months of January and June ; one in November, and one in December during the
march ; the disease, however, was contracted in Bhooj. The two last suffered from the in--
fecting form of chancre and became the subjects of constitutional syphilis ; for this disease
there have been 7 admissions, and 5 of these have been readmitted at various times ; they were
treated with mercury in the form of the bichloride, iodide of potass, iodide of iron, and nitric acid.
Two of these patients were cachectic and suffering also from scurvy—mercury was not adminis--
tered to them. I have found in two or three cases (not in those under observation), that
when iodide of potass has been given in gradually increasing and large doses for some slight
but obstinate manifestation of syphilis, in cases of old standing, the medicine though affecting
in some degree the symptom already present, has seemed to produce symptoms that have
never previously shown themselves, and on the discontinuation of the iodine, these fresh symptoms
gradually disappeared. Twenty-one cases admitted under the head of scurvy by no means repre--
sent the amount of that disease that has been present in the Regiment during the year ; a large
proportion of those admitted with intermittent fever have suffered also from scurvy, due to long
continuance in the exhausting climate of Kutch, to the inferiority of the food to be obtained in
Bhooj, and to the difficulty in getting green vegetables. One case of paralysis was under treat-
ment for several weeks in hospital ; the man was admitted in the early part of August—I saw
him on the 16th of that month. There was total loss of voluntary motion of both lower limbs, slight
convulsive reflex action existed more apparent in the right limb ; there was little or no control
over the bladder and sphincter ani ; the muscles of the legs were relaxed and sensation much
diminished but not quite lost. Pressure over the two last lumber vertebræ produced slight
pains, but there was no tenderness of any other portion of the spine. There was a slight
stricture of the urethra, but it had never caused sufficient inconvenience to induce the patient
to apply for any relief on that account. The man had suffered some years previously from
constitutional syphilis, but, unless the myelitis was due to this cause, no symptoms of syphilis
existed. Temperature taken on the following day was in axilla 98º, at either knee 91º; strych-
-nine was prescribed at first, but on the 19th, iodide of potass was substituted. On the 20th
some œdema of the left leg was present, but this gradually lessened and had quite gone by the
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