scarlet fever in the 16th at Mhow. As was also the case last year, Sind has re-
mained entirely free from any species of eruptive fever. With regard to measles
the spread of the disease has been very marked, the number of cases having in-
creased from 22 in 1874 to 83 for the year under report. In the Presidency divi-
sion the disease has remained stationary, being almost entirely confined to Bombay;
but in the Poona and Northern divisions, taken together, it has increased from 7
to 73 cases. None of the medical officers in these divisions attempt to account
for the increase. or trace the sources from which the disease has emanated.
21. The army stationed in the Presidency and Sind divisions remained
wholly untouched by the cholera epidemic which raged
throughout the country during the year 1875. In
the Poona Division there were 22 cases and 15 deaths. 3, all fatal, occurred in the
Sappers and Miners at Kirkee; 4, with 3 deaths, in the 6th N. I. at Belgaum; and
3 fatal cases in the 12th at Dharwar; 3, all of whom recovered, in the detachment
of the Poona Horse at Dhulia; and 2 each in the 8th and 13th N. I. at Poona
and Ahmednagar. In the Northern division there were 98 cases and 56 deaths;
the 10th N. I. at Mehidpur suffered most severely, having 43 admissions with
24 deaths; the 22nd at Baroda had 14 cases and 7 deaths; the 9th, at the same
station, 12, and 8 deaths; and the 16th, at Mhow, 7 admissions, of which 4 were
fatal: the 25th, also, at Mhow and the 24th at Neemuch had each 2 cases. In
the course of my further remarks I shall again allude to various points connect-
ed with this epidemic.
22. The treated for rheumatic affections show an increase on the total for
the previous year; then there were 1,474 with 4 deaths,
but in 1875 they amounted to 1,588 with the same
number of deaths. The increase has occurred in the Poona and Sind divisions;
in the first the advance is from 487 to 595, and in the second from 82 to 115, the
strengths remaining as before. In the Presidency and Northern divisions the
figures continue much the same—a few less in each case. The percentage of
treated to strength for the Presidency, Poona, Northern, and Sind divisions was
6.1, 7.3, 7.8, and 4.0 respectively, while that for Poona and Sind for 1874 was
5.9 and 2.9 respectively. The 16th N. I. at Mhow and the 18th at Deesa suf-
fered from this class of diseases in a greater proportion than regiments in other
stations, the same being the case in the preceding year. Here and elsewhere
many of the cases entered as rheumatism may, doubtless, be laid to the door of
malaria, syphilis, or scurvy, while others may with good reason be put down as
cases of simulated rheumatism, the disease in its chronic form being the one most
commonly resorted to by malingering sepoys. In para. 63 of my report for 1874
I alluded to this subject.
23. During the past year all the divisions show an increase in the number
of treated for syphilis. In the Presidency division
the figures are, for 1874 and 1875 respectively, 76 and
92, for Poona 206 and 213, the Northern division 148 and 155, and for Sind 66
and 81, the totals for both years being 406 and 541; the percentage of treated to
strength for the latter year was for each division 2.7, 2.6, 1.8, and 2.8 respect-
tively. As may easily be supposed, the regiments stationed in or near large towns
show the highest proportion of cases—the 21st N. I. at Bombay showing, for
example, 4.1 per cent. of treated to strength. The regiments at Poona and some of
the Deccan cities also show a considerable proportion of cases as compared with
those stationed in the Northern division, where, as a rule, the admissions are
infrequent. The cases treatedin PoonaandKirkee have slightly increased in num-
ber: these in 1874 were, for all the Native troops at those stations, 102, while for
the past year they were 106. In Sind the 27th N. I. at Hyderabad, where no
lock-hospital exists, shows 5.6 per cent. of treated to strength; in the preceding
year the regiment was stationed at Kurrachee, where a lock-hospital does exist;
and then the percentage on the same strength was 3.3.
3 66—B
Cholera.
Rheumatism.
Syphilis.