MYSORE DIVISION.
59
1866 ..
.. 108.8 1871 ..
. .
1 6 9 . 1
1867 ..
.. 116.09 1872 ..
.. 132.81
1868 ..
.. 201.9 1873 ..
.. 136.64
1869 ..
.. 109.6 1874 ..
.. 151.2
1870 ..
.. 117.2
The ratio of admissions for 1875 per mille of
strength for the period of occupation amounts to 170.8.
The corresponding ratios for the last nine years are given
in the margin.
Out of a total of 282 cases, or 52-8 per cent., were due to primary or secondary syphilis.
This table shows that venereal diseases have been steadily on the increase since 1866 among
European soldiers. 1868 being a year of exceptional severity, and when it is considered that about
50 per cent. of all attacks are due to primary and secondary syphilis, the serious character of the
question becomes apparent. It is true that medical officers urge that the disease is of a milder
type than it used to be, and that during the latter months of 1875 the proportion of European
soldiers infected was lower than usual, still the fact remains prominent that the ratio per mille of
European troops affected with venereal diseases is on the increase, and that 52.8 per cent. of these
are cases of syphilis. I attribute the somewhat unsuccessful working of the Lock Hospital at
Bangalore to the radical deficiency of the rules under which the Contagious Diseases Act is worked.
The limitation of the rules to prostitutes consorting with Europeans may be a necessary and a
politic measure, but it is one which effectually prevents radical measures being applied for the
suppression of venereal disease in the very class for whose special benefit the shackled rules have
been devised. Registered prostitutes constitute but a very small fraction of the prostitution of
the station and Pété, and it is not always, or even generally, with registered women that the
soldier consorts. Registered women consort freely with natives, and thus the soldier is at all times
in nearly as great danger from registered as from unregistered women.
No departmental zeal and activity, no energy on the part of the ruling Committee, Police or
Magistracy can ever effect more than the partial success of
radically imperfect rules. The Lock Hospital acts by limiting
somewhat the spread of venereal disease, and, it has been urged, by
diminishing also its severity. Of the correctness of this latter
view I am not quite satisfied, for the marginal return shows that
during 1875 39 cases of secondary syphilis were treated in the European hospitals of this station.
The detective agency has been made more efficient since last report. A Police Serjeant
and two special constables have been entrusted with the duty of serving summonses upon
prostitutes who attend weekly on examination days, and also of prosecuting those who fail to
attend ; " but there appears to be," adds Dr. C. Smith, " no special arrangement for preventing
unlicensed prostitutes frequenting the lines " or for detecting clandestine prostitution. Infected
men are unable or unwilling to indicate the women with whom they have consorted, and even
registered women are not always willing to give up the names and places of residence of others
who are unregistered.
The registration of prostitutes is consequently very defective. Conviction of unregistered
prostitutes is also difficult to obtain. Of the 104 registered women present on the 1st of January
1875, 58 are reported by the Police as having left the station and 4 died in hospital ;
26 women were registered during 1875, leaving 68 on the register on the 1st January 1876.
The Lock Hospital having fallen to ruins, the women were removed on the 3rd of June to
the Soldiers' Rest-house as a temporary measure, where they still were at the close of the year.
The hospital stands greatly in need of the services of an active and vigilant matron.
Bellary.—The Lock Hospital at Bellary was established in 1860, five years later than that at
Bangalore. It is a second-class hospital, and is under the operation of Act No. I. of 1866,
Chapter V
The rules are operative over an area which extends 4 miles beyond the Cantonment limits.
beyon
The rules are enforced by a Cantonment Sub-
Committee, as per margin, which met once during
1875. Registration is defective, attendance at
the periodical examinations is unsatisfactory, the
detective agency is inefficient, and there is no
relative proportion, as regards number of admis-
sions or severity of the disease, between the Lock
Hospital returns and the returns from the
European Regimental Hospital. The amount of
unregistered prostitution at this station must be
very considerable.
Table exhibiting the Average Strength, Number admitted, and Total Treated of European Troops.
Years.
Average
Strength.
Admitted.
Total
treated.
Primary
Syphilis.
Secondary
Syphilis. Gonorrhoea.
1875
..
..
896.16
9.91
4.33
7.66
263
1874
..
..
870.17
17.25
5.58
9.33
386
1872-73..
..
936.02
14.58
4.08 I5.91
315
1871-72..
..
727.88
9.08
1.16
3.91
170
H.M.'s 89th Regiment
.. 13
Do. Royal Artillery
.. 10
Do. 18th Hussars ..
.. 4
Do. 45th Regiment
.. 12
T o t a l
..
3 9
President.
The Brigadier-General Commanding Ceded Districts.
Members.
The Collector of Bellary.
The Garrison Surgeon.
The Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General.
The Officer Commanding European Regiment.
The Senior Medical Officer of European Regiment.
The Executive Engineer.
Secretary.
The Cantonment Magistrate.