Duties ; their Effect on Health
not injurious.
Exercise, Amusement, and Occu
-
pation.
Ventilation.
Overcrowding.
34
A SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
cessity to report on impure water-supply, if only the canal, which conveys this water into
Poona be kept free from pollution.
9. The food has been abundant and fairly cheap.
10. The clothing of the Sappers was fully described by Dr. Davey last year, but I would
add that the addition of a gaiter to their working dress is very
urgently needed. The knickerbockers come to the knee, and
from that to the edge of the Bluchers there is no covering.
11. The duties for the greater part of the year were line-building, and have not had, as
far as I can judge, any injurious effect, but they have doubtless
contributed to swell the number of admissions under the head
of "injuries", which, however, show a total of less than half
what they were last year. I think that a wrestling ground or
talimkhana would be a great addition to the new lines.
12. The new hospital, though good in many respects, is, I very much regret to say, a
great disappointment to me. It consists principally of two
single wards, with opposite doors and windows, communicating
with each other by an arch, on a well-raised plinth surrounded by a verandah, at each corner of
which is a little room, one of which has to be used as a dispensary, a second as a writing-room,
a third as a small separate ward for eye-cases or any others requiring segregation, and the
fourth as a store-room ; but with the exception of the writing-room none of these are either
large enough or well fitted for the purpose. The dimensions of the wards are 45½ x 25 x 18.6’,
or an area of 910 feet, and cubic space of 16,835, giving to each bed, when there is the
proper number of beds in each ward, an area of nearly 57 feet and a cubic space of 1,052 feet ;
but with the number of beds in the plan (two beds being put, contrary to all sanitary laws,
in one wall-space), each patient would only have about 32½ square feet and 601 cubic feet—
obviously a mistake, so that the wards are only capable of holding 16 beds, which I con-
sider not enough for the occasional high numbers that have to be treated. The building is
well situated, with open spaces on all sides, and facing a little to the north of east, but it has
a mud-floor.
Ventilation is well provided for by the opposite doors and windows, and when these
have to be closed, by the semi-circular revolving fan-lights over
each window, and by a Howard ventilator running along the
ridge. For the above reasons it has happened occasionally that
the hospital was overcrowded, but not for any long period. At
-
tached to each rear corner of this building, by a covered passage running from the rear vera
n -
dah on each side, are two washing-rooms, and a privy built on the usual plan. Each privy
contains three receptacles for dammered iron pans. To the right flank of the hospital are the
subordinates' quarters ; these will not be sufficient for all when the whole regiment shall have
moved over to occupy the new lines, and it is complained to me by the occupants that the quar
-
ters are small, and that there is no place whatever for them or their families to bathe. If there
were a back verandah, it would have been sufficient to make up for this want. Behind these are
their cook-houses and privies, and still more to the rear a row of 8 small houses for the hospital
servants, which seem very good for that purpose. To the left rear is the cook-room for the
patients. It was a sort of shed, with only a half wall (half both as to height and breadth)
f a c i n g t h e p o i n t w h e n c e t h e r a i n a n d p r e v a i l i n g w i n d s c o m e . I t h a s , h o w e v e r , b e e n l a t t e r l y
altered, so as to make it possible to cook in. Still further to the rear of this is an excellent
dead-house : the only defect in it at all is that the door has been
unfortunately placed on the side nearest the road, which might
as well have been avoided.
Food.
Clothing.
Hospital.
Dead-house.
Principal Defects of Hospitall.
13. The principal defects are—
(a.) The want of a hospital for Europeans.
(b.) The want of any quarters for the apothecary.
(c.) The mud-floor.
(d.) The want of a contagion-ward, or any ward for eye-cases.
(e.) The want of a wall round the premises to prevent the entrance of people who
have no business there, or the exit of patients.
The contagion-ward is to be built, I believe; but the ablution-room has not even been
marked out yet.
Conservancy.
The conservancy is the usual one of the excreta being
removed twice a day in receptacles, and the 2 hospital sweepers
taking it to the trench latrine.