32
A SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
12. The total amount of rainfall registered for the year was 28 inches 90 cents, which
is somewhat above the average. As regards its influence on
disease there is nothing very striking to record. The greatest
number of admissions from ague took place in August and
September, viz., 73 in each month. The greatest number of admissions from dysentery
took place in July and August—6 in the former and 7 in the latter. The rainfall for those
months was—in July 11 inches 91 cents, August 4.82, September 5.81. The amount re-
gistered in July was the largest amount recorded in any one month, but it does not appear
to have made any very marked difference as regards admissions from ague or dysentery.
Influence of Rainfall.
13. The maximum temperature during the year was
104° F., the minimum 51°, and the mean about 77°.
Temperature.
14. Cholera has raged in and around Poona, but the 17th N. I. has escaped in a wonder
-
ful manner. One case under the head of choleraic diarrhœa was
treated in hospital. Every precaution was, of course, taken; but
when it is considered that the regiment furnished the guard at
Yerauda and guards in the city during the prevalence of the epidemic, it seems marvellous
that more cases were not admitted.
15. Vaccination and re-vaccination have been successfully carried on : the lymph has
been remarkably good.
16. The general health of the men of this regiment is fair. They are not a fine body of
men; but, considering how much of their time has been spent in Guzerat, they are in very
fair health and condition.
Epidemics.
Resumé of the whole.
17. On the whole, during a very unhealthy cholera year,
the 17th N. I. has been most fortunate, no unusual sickness
having occurred, and mortality low.
18. One medical pupil joined the Grant Medical College in November; prior to this his
education was well looked after.
Sappers and Miners.
KIRKEE.—In medical charge of Surgeon-Major STRAKER ; Strength, 488.5.
1. The corps has been located partly in their old lines near the Kirkee bazaar and partly
i n t h e n e w . T w o c o m p a n i e s w e n t o v e r t o t h e s e l i n e s i n J u l y 1 8 7 4 , a n o t h e r f o l l o w e d i n A p r i l
1875, and the fourth in May 1875, and the old lines were finally vacated.
2. Though the camp boundaries have been extended so as to bring the new lines, for mili
-
tary purposes, into cantonment limits, they belong properly neither
to Kirkee nor Poona, being situated about half way between Hol
-
kar's and the FitzGerald bridges, in a triangular space, the apex of
which is at Kolkar's bridge, formed by the two roads which run from that bridge, the one
most southerly to the FitzGerald bridge and the village of New Kirkee, the other to the
north by the Yerauda Jail towards Loonee, being the Nagar road. The base of the triangle
is a line joining these two roads, which have gradually diverged from each other to about
1,500 yards and running by the side of the Deccan College. The lines of huts occupy the
middle of the northern side of this triangle, facing south and closely bordering the Nagare
road, a little to the north of which again the River Mula runs from east to west, bending
down again towards the south after it has passed under Holkar's bridge, and thus being on
the north and on the west of the lines, though its distance on the north is only about 250
yards, while on the west it is 435 yards off, the intervening space being at present the regi-
mental parade-ground. The new lines occupy a space of 680 feet by about 480, or 326,400
square feet ; they run almost directly east and west in four lines, each line being divided
into four blocks, two blocks to a company, each block containing 24 huts, 12 facing to the
south or front and 12 to the north or rear. Thus each line consists of 96 huts, and the
total number of huts is 384. The Native officers' huts are in rear of all, 8 in number.
The spaces between the lines from north to south are about 60 feet; but the central
road between the two northern and the two southern lines is 90 feet in breadth. The
spaces in the other direction,—that is, from east to west—are about 30 feet wide, except the
most western, which is 60 feet, and leads up to the quarter-guard. The dimensions of each
block are about 140 feet x 40, by a mean height of 13 feet, and each hut is 11' х 9' х 1 3 ' , g i v i n g
a cubic space of 1,287 and area of 99, or, including the verandah, a cubic space of 1,778. The
Native non-commissioned officers' houses are larger, being 11' x 11' x 13', or 1,573 cubic feet,
or, including the front and side verandahs, 3,143 cubic feet. The Native officers' houses are
New Lines.