Water
-supply.
Duty and
exercises.
Exercises.
Epidemic
diseases.
General
conclusions.
Water
-supply.
Diet.
Duty and
exercises.
Epidemic
diseases.
122
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
Water-supply.— Has been of good quality and sufficient quantity.
Duty and exercises.— The average number of nights in bed for 1875 was 3.30 per week.
Exercises.— They indulge in games of cricket. Also the men go out fishing and shooting.
Epidemic diseases.— No epidemics occurred during the year 1875.
General conclusions.— The men enjoyed better health during 1875 than in 1874 as seen from
the hospital registers of diseases and admissions; in 1874 there were 714 against 531 in 1875,
showing the men have become somewhat acclimatised to this part of the country.
The medical officers who held charge of the right wing of this corps during
the year were as under :—
Surgeon J. Backhouse,
D o . A . A . T h o m a s ,
The latter officer reports as follows :—
Climate of the
station.
Ventilation
and drainage
for the men's huts.
Climate of the station .—Having only recently arrived here, I can say nothing regarding the
climate of this station from my own experience; from information gathered I am enabled to state
that neither heat nor rainfall has been excessive during the year. The rains were peculiar in
that the heavy falls all occurred in one month (July). After the cessation of the rains the weather
continued remarkably mild and pleasant until about the middle of November, when the nights
and early mornings became very cold and chilly, the sun having little power until nearly 11 o'clock
in the day.
Ventilation and drainage ,for the men's huts.— The ventilation of the men's huts, guard-rooms,
&c., is exceedingly good, and quite sufficient to preserve the air pure. The ventilation of the huts
takes place through the two doorways, except in the end huts of each row which are provided in
addition with an opening 1' 6" x 1' in their outer wall; some ventilation is also carried on
through the tiled roofing of the huts. The drainage of the lines is carried out by shallow surface
drains in front of the rows of huts; these drains run into a larger surface drain on each side of the
main road; if the quantity of water is small, it soon becomes absorbed; but in the rainy season
these latter drains discharge their contents across the parade ground into the Kooneraree Nuddee.
The Kooneraree Nuddee joins the Bhauvar Nuddee, which empties itself into the Dessaun river;
this river receives the entire drainage of both old and new cantonments. The drainage of the lines,
even during the rainy season, is said to be very good.
Nuisance.
General
conclusions.
Nuisance.— In the enclosure in front of each sepoy's hut there is built a small private latrine
for the use of the sepoy's family. Two partially-buried chatties outside the enclosure receive one
the urine and lotah water, the other the waste water used for washing up and bathing. The excreta
from the private latrines are removed daily by two conservancy carts and deposited in trenches at
about 120 yards distant from the lines.
Water-supply.—
The supply of water is abundant, and its quality, as far as one may judge
from physical examination, good.
Diet .—Rice is even here the Madras sepoy's principal article of diet, for the increased price
of which they are given 3 Rupees rice-compensation money per mensem. The other articles of
food chiefly consumed are mutton, dholl, ghee, and condiments. The average daily cost of an
unmarried sepoy's food is "1 Anna." Provisions have been on the whole reasonable in price and
plentiful.
Duty and exercises.— Average number of nights per week in bed 3.25.
Epidemic diseases.— For the first time for several years a serious epidemic of cholera broke out
within the cantonment of Nowgong, Bundelkhund.
20th Madras Native Infantry.— A boy living in the Madras Regimental bazaar was attacked
on the 10th August and died on the 14th August; this was the first case in these lines. Eleven
cases in all occurred in the Madras lines. Of these eight proved fatal.
General conclusions .—Quotidian ague caused 226 out of a total of 572 admissions during the
year. The greatest number of admissions, placed in their numerical order, occurred during the
months of September 38, August 36, May 26, June 25, and July 17. It will thus be seen that the
disease was most prevalent during the rainy weather and hot season. Fevers are always most
prevalent in Nowgong towards the latter end of the rains. Judging from the records of these
cases, I should say that the type of the disease on the whole must have been very mild; for out of
the 226 cases of ague and 9 cases of hypertrophy of spleen, its probable sequelæ, only 1 case of
ague and 2 cases of hypertrophied spleen have been discharged otherwise, 1 case of ague and
1 of hypertrophied spleen sent on "sick leave," the remaining case of hypertrophied spleen sent
to "pension."