Ventilation
and drainage
for the men's
huts.
Nuisance.
Water
-supply.
Sanitary
arrangements.
Diet.
Clothing.
Drill.
Exercises.
Hospital
drainage.
Hospital
water-supply.
74
Climate of the
station.
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
The following medical officers were in charge during the year :
—
Surgeon A. N. Rogers-Harrison.
Surgeon J. North.
The last-named reports as follows :—
Climate of the station.— There is nothing unusual to be said regarding the climate.
Ventilation and drainage for the men's huts.—Means of drainage and ventilation good. In
October a plan was introduced by which the sewage from the men's huts was conveyed by earthen
pipes outside the huts into chatties. I certified that it was necessary to apply tar periodically to.
these pipes and chatties; and the authorities have now sanctioned an extra supply of tar for the
purpose. The chatties are emptied every morning and evening by the municipality. This mode
of drainage was necessitated by the drains in the lines having very little fall and not being paved,
and it appears to entirely succeed.
Nuisance.—Public latrines and urinals have not yet been erected, although a site has been
selected by a committee a hundred yards in rear of the lines.
Water-supply .—The water-supply, from tanks and. wells, has been good and sufficient. No
recommendation has been made on the subject.
Sanitary arrangements.— Particular attention has been paid to keeping the lines clean. There
have been no local disease causes requiring removal.
Diet.—Provisions and vegetables have been fairly cheap and plentiful. The men have been
allowed an average of Rupees 1-3-4 rice batta during the year.
Epidemic
diseases.
Clothing.—Clothing sufficient and adapted to climate. No change recommended.
Drill has had no bad influence on health. No recommendation made.
Exercises.— Cricket and gymnastic exercises have been used by the sepoys. Five men were
sent to be instructed by the Serjeant Instructor of the 48th Foot; these men are now competent to
teach, and do teach recruits and any men that may volunteer to go through the established course
of gymnastics, which is compulsory as far as recruits are concerned. This is entirely regimental,
no support having been given by Government.
Epidemic diseases.—No epidemic. One fatal case of cholera occurred in the lines in October,
but in this case the disease was probably contracted outside the lines in the cowle bazaar in which
cases were occurring daily.
Phthisis
pulmonalis.
Ventilation of
the hospital.
Phthisis pulmonalis.— In the few cases of phthisis pulmonahs (two in number) and other
chest diseases which have occurred during the year the seeds of disease may possibly have been
sown in Jubbulpore, which was the regiment's last station, and where the climate in the cold season is
trying to the cotton-clad Madrassee. At any rate there is nothing that I am aware of in Bellary
to which the occurrence of chest diseases could he attributed.
Ventilation of the hospital. —Ventilation of the hospital ample. No representations have been
made.
Hospital drainage.— Good.
Earth sewage efficiently carried out. No representations made.
Hospital water-supply.— Good.
No representations made.
General
conclusions.
Lines.
Water-
supply.
General conclusions.— The health of the regiment during the year has been good. As a proof
of its fitness for service I may mention that I have been out with it on two field days or sham-
fights, and only one man has fallen out of the ranks from fatigue or sickness, although on the last
occasion the scene of battle was four miles from the regimental parade ground, and the man who
fell out was only discharged from hospital the day before. I would call attention to the twelve
admissions during the year from syphilis, as indicating either the inefficiency of the Contagious
Diseases Act itself, or an inefficient system of carrying it out.
Deputy Surgeon-General George Smith, M.D., inspected this corps on the 24th
February 1876, and reports as follows :—
Lines.— The lines looked clean and well conserved; special care had been taken of the
conservancy of the huts; the domestic latrines were in fair working order, and the supply of sweepers,
male and female, was sufficient to keep the houses clean and free from nuisance. As there are no
public or regimental latrines, the inmates of the huts use only the domestic latrine or lavatory, and
arrangements are made, with more or less success, to provide for the separation of the excreta and
of the excretal wash on the one hand, and of this latter from the non-excretal wash on the other.
The surface drains are mere ditches dug in the soil, but when rain falls it runs freely out of the
lines owing to the general slope of the ground towards the south. The huts are built of mud.
Many have flat roofs, some are thatched and others tiled. The lines are old, and the huts are apt
to collapse dining the rains. The lines were free from refuse, the same being daily carted to a
distance. There are in all 780 huts in occupation, the average number of occupants per hut
being 3 . 13. Including pension and recruit boys, the regiment numbers, of all ranks, 742 minus the
families and
f o l l o w e r s .
Water-supply.— The water-supply from tanks and wells is generally sufficient.
Conservancy.
Conserrancy.— Upon the whole the conservancy of the neighbourhood of the lines is good.