11
POONA DIVISION OF THE ARMY.
ventilators being placed on the roof of the hospital and also a stone floor. At present the
floor is of mud and used to be cow-dunged periodically to the detriment of the recovery of
the patients; the smell and damp feeling which pervaded the hospital was so offensive, that
I ordered the filthy practice of cow-dunging to be discontinued; and with a most marked favor
-able result to the patients and other inmates of the hospital and its adjacent buildings—the
quarters of the subordinate medical staff.
The floor of the hospital looks broken up in places and will require to be properly repair
-ed very shortly unless a stone floor be granted. A bathroom and latrines are within the
hospital compound, which latter are kept scrupulously clean and deodorised with lime and Condy's
carbolate of lime powder. Around the hospital compound are a series of small flower beds
nicely arranged, well watered and tended to, which gives it a cheerful appearance.
There have been 613 admissions from all diseases and causes during the year. Ague,
boils, bronchitis, diarrhœa, dysentery and colic have been the most frequent ailments, and I
have placed them in their order of frequency; ague being by far the most numerous, no less
than 365 cases having been treated during the year, many of them quite successfully without
quinine. Boils which includes all abscesses from the eruption of acme up to the carbuncle proper,
stand next in ratio of frequency to ague, 36 having been admitted and cured. Then come
respiratory affections; 23 cases of bronchitis and 9 of catarrh having been treated successfully;
and lastly, disease of the digestive system; 15 cases of dysentery and 15 of diarrhœa having
occurred, all of which have been amenable to treatment.
Two deaths occurred during the year, one from acute phthisis which ran its total course
very rapidly, and the other from endocarditis in a man who had been to his native country on
leave, and was ordered by a Medical Officer in Bengal to return to his Regiment at once on ac
- c o u n t o f h i s i l l n e s s . H e d i e d w i t h i n a n h o u r o r t w o o f h i s a r r i v a l i n P o o n a b y t r a i n t o r e j o i n .
Altogether the health of the Regiment has been highly satisfactory; the mortality con
-siderably below the average.
H. M.' s 23rd Regiment N. I.
Poona.—In Medical Charge of Surgeon-Major F. W. HARRIS and Surgeon G. C. BELL,
Strength 627.
The Regiment still occupies "Chupper" Lines of the most combustible material; in
consequence many alarms of fire took place during the hot months, which ended in the des
- t r u c t i o n o f 5 o u t o f 8 p e n d a l l s o c c u p i e d b y t h e L e f t W i n g . D u r i n g t h e f i r s t h a l f y e a r , t h e
health of the men was good, but just before the rains set in, from over-crowding, the general
health deteriorated; diarrhœa, dysentery, mumps, became common; fevers also became
more numerous, especially at changes of the moon, but that as a matter of course; and one
case of cholera appeared ending fatally, but there is no doubt the disease was contracted at
a distance. During the last month a few cases of fracture of the clavicle (1), and acromeon
(2), one of the latter with partial dislocation of humerus have been under treatment,
originating in the men preparing for the soldiers' games.
Two casualties are recorded up to this day, one of which was the case of cholera alluded
to, the other a case of scrofula of the 12th Regiment.
The dry earth system is carried out and the conservancy of the Regiment is excellent.
Besides the ordinary Regimental and Cantonment guards, the Regiment has furnished
guards as follows:—
Government House, Gunnesh Khind . . .
Throughout the year.
Commander-in-Chief's residence do . . .
Yerrowda Jail . . .
And City Jail from January to July 1870.