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SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
a more perfect ventilation of the hut through the crevices as is very evident by the smoke
from the interior, passing through the roof in large quantities. The carbon and pyroligneous
distillations of the smoke have also a very good deodorant effect on the sanitation of the hut.
The shutters of the windows are of jungle wood fitted in and latticed with split bamboos.
Each line or row contains 84 huts, altogether 672 huts, each hut being separate and
private from the others. In the single men's line they consist of one hut, but in the married
quarters, the verandah is walled in which forms a second room or dormitory. The Native
Officers' huts are divided into two rooms by a partition wall, and one of these is sometimes
sub-divided for the convenience of a small family.
The lines are situated to the north-east of the cantonment on a rocky plateau which slopes
gently to a natural water course or "nulla," on the margin of which three wells are sunk; and
these form the water supply of the Regiment and properly belong to these lines. But there
are two adjacent public wells about four hundred yards distant further to the north which are
made use of by the Regiment, thus making five wells, which give together—for nine months
of the year—an ample supply, for all purposes, of good sparkling pure water. Every year
about March the wells get low and the water becomes somewhat scarce; but there is an admi
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rable arrangement by which the wells are replenished from the Moota Moola river by means
of pipes and a steam force pump from the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Bund, which carries on the
water supply until the monsoon, in June, fills the wells again by percolation or in some
instances by direct communication with the storm water from the "nulla." We are indebted
to the philanthrophy of late Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Baronet, for the valuable bund
arrangement which gives an inexhaustible supply of water all the year round.
There is no regular system of drainage in these lines; no cesspits exist anywhere;
all refuse water is thrown out on the open maidan or streets and is quickly evaporated and
dispersed by the hot winds and sun's rays. This arrangement appears clean and satisfactory.
The latrines are of the description laid down in G. G. O., they are situated in easy prox
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imity to the lines and to leeward. The seats are placed in rows, there are four rows of about
seventeen seats, under each of which there is an iron receptacle well dammered inside and
out with pitch, which receives the deposits of the day. They are emptied into the tank
carts which close tightly and are conveyed a little, too little, distance from Poona at night.
These cells are emptied twice a day, as well as is the tank containing urine.
There is an excellent gymnasium near the north-west corner of the lines which affords
healthy recreation and beneficial muscular exercise to many who take advantage of its use.
The ventilation and perflation of the lines generally is all that could be desired. The
hospital is built on a good site, being quite open on all sides, and has a four-sided compound,
which is surrounded by a hedge of prickly pear regularly cut to the standard height permit
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ted by the station authority. This prickly pear hedge I consider most objectionable, inas
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much as it harbours snakes and vermin of all sorts, and is apt to become a receptacle for all
sorts of filth that may be thrown into it. I would strongly urge that a stone wall be built
round the hospital compound, it would be much more wholesome and would look infinitely
more tidy.
The hospital building is amply commodious for all ordinary admissions of sickness; there
is a contagious disease ward apart from the General Hospital building, neither of which are
ventilated sufficiently; the ventilation of both is most imperfect and insufficient, and in the
hot weather must be most deleterious to the health of the patients. They are both covered
with thatch, which during the rains emits a most foul and disgusting stench, sufficient to
produce sickness by itself, and the stifling heat caused by the impenetrability of the thatch
to ventilation is most enervating to the sick. I would most strongly recommend large box