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SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
by the injection, was readmitted for fever four days after his discharge from hospital, and after
two paroxysms was really cured by half dram doses of liquor arsenicalis.
The above cases seem to show that quinine hypodermically injected is not more efficacious
than when given in the usual way, and moreover that when the subcutaneous treatment is
applied to men suffering from well-marked malarial cachexy it is apt to cause sloughing,
without producing any compensating good effect. The sloughs are generally about the size of
a two anna piece, and the ulcers resulting from them are, owing to the debilitated constitutions
of the patients, weak, indolent, and slow of healing.
This Regiment suffered more from ague than the 3rd N. I. did, though both Regiments
may be said to live in the same lines and be subject to almost the same hygenic conditions.
It is worth while to inquire what were the reasons for the disparity in the number of admis
-sions for this disease.
In the first place the 3rd had fewer parades during the rains, when the number of admis
-sions in the 14th was greatest. I do not mean to insinuate that the comparatively numerous
parades had an actually injurious effect on the health of the men, but that they increased the
number of admissions . For this reason, a man who is not on any duty disliking the confinement
of hospital, may have fever daily for 3 or 4 hours, and never apply for admission into hospital,
while a man after his attack of fever may find himself too weak and languid to perform his
duty, and is consequently constrained to come on the sick list.
Secondly, many of the men in the 14th have not even yet, I fear, shaken off the effects of
their residence in that very malarious station, Mehidpore. The 3rd came from Poona and were
all strong, healthy men, the weakly ones having been weeded out by the hardships of the
Abyssinian campaign.
A strongly-built Affreedi recruit was admitted in November suffering from great enlarge
-ment and induration of the spleen. The anœmia was well marked, the tongue, lips, &c., being
quite blanched ; an anœmic bruit of the heart being audible, as well as the "bruit du liable"
in the jugulars. Six weeks tonic treatment, liberal diet, and inunctions of the red oxide of
mercury, decreased the size of the organ greatly, cured the anaemia, and rendered the heart's
sound normal.
Twelve cases of dysentery occurred during the year ; the disease in the majority was slight
and readily yielded to treatment. One man died in January after an illness of nearly a week ;
the remedy principally used was ipecacuanha powder in scruple doses. In cases the prominent
symptoms of which were nausea and griping, the administration thrice daily of dram doses of
castor oil proved beneficial.
Diarrhœa was never prevalent, the largest number of admissions in one month (February)
being three ; the cases were all very mild and caused probably by exposure to cold or some
trivial error ill diet.
There has been a slight decrease in the number of admissions for enthetic disease. In
1869 the number were:
Syphilis, Primary . . .
14
" Secondary . . . 10
Gonorrhœa . . .
3
27
Last year the number of admissions was as follows :
Syphilis, Primary . . .
6
" S e c o n d a r y . . .
10
Gonorrhœa . . .
8
24