Topography.
Meteorology.
Lines and
barracks.
Drainage.
Diet.
Scurvy.
RAWALPINDI DIVISION.
173
III. Topography.—The reports for 1869 and 1870 may be consulted for a general des-
cription of the topography of Talagang and its vicinity.
IV. Meteorology. —The rigorous cold of a northern Punjab winter was realised in full
by the regiment while it was encamped on high ground in an exposed position at Rawal Pindi
during the cold season of 1874-75. The sufferings of the troops were greatly enhanced by
t h e p r e v a l e n c e , p a r t i c u l a r l y a t n i g h t s , o f t h e k e e n b l i g h t i n g w i n d s w h i c h d e s c e n d e d f r o m t h e
lofty mountains near at hand. The cold was very intense even during the windless nights,
and plates of ice formed in the mussuks of water. The hot season at Talagang was principally
remarkable for the prevalence of great heat during the months of June, July and August,
the thermometer recording maximum within doors of 106,° or 10° higher than registered in
1873 and 1874. The amount of rain which fell was greatly below the average, and this was
all the more noteworthy in connexion with the floods which visited the province generally, and
the heavy rains which swelled the rivers and rendered them impassable for a time within a
distance of 10 miles. Another interesting feature was the trifling dew-fall during September
and October, as compared with the same months in 1873 and 1874 and as regarded in relation
to the diminished prevalence of autumnal fever during the season of 1875.
V. Lines and barracks.—The lines at Talagang have remained without addition or altera-
tion during 1875. They are commodious, well constructed, adequately drained, and fairly
ventilated. They have been kept in good repair and admirable sanitary order.
VI. Drainage.—The drainage at Talagang, both artificial and natural, has been
repeatedly described and is all that could be desired. The surface drains have been main
- t a i n e d i n g o o d o r d e r . T h e s i t u a t i o n o f t h e l i n e s a t M o o l t a n i s o b j e c t e d t o b y o n e r e p o r t e r
as being below the level of the ground immediately adjacent to them, in consequence
of which, they remain flooded for several hours after a heavy fall of rain; their position
and surroundings have been amply detailed in the army sanitary reports between 1869
and 1873. Their drainage is generally pronounced to be very inadequate, though all
are not agreed as to the causes of the insufficiency, local circumstances being brought into
prominence by some, while others maintain that the general drainage of Mooltan is very defec-
tive, upon which point there can be no doubt.
VII. Conservancy and latrines. —The regimental latrines and the conservancy arrangements
at Talagang for the station have been described in former reports. They have worked satisfac-
torily. The open fields are generally preferred by the men, and in the case of a small com-
munity the practice is quite unobjectionable, the ordure being rapidly disposed of. At
Mooltan the trench-system is in operation. The latrines are commodious, well situated, and
the interior divided into a considerable number of compartments—an arrangement which
adequately secures privacy.
VIII. Water-supply. —The sources, adequacy, and purity of the water-supply at Talagang,
the sufficiency of the arrangements for washing clothes and for ablutions, are all mentioned in
previous reports and are quite satisfactory. At Mooltan the water is derived from two capacious
solid masonry wells surrounded with good stone copings. The well for the right wing is
covered, and the ventilation of the interior adequately provided for by means of a grating
about 2 feet in dimensions. The well in the left wing is not provided with a cover. There
is no tank to receive waste water. The well for the use of the hospital is in a still less satisfac-
tory condition; the stone coping around it is low, it is not covered, and the waste water collects
in a sort of cess-pool and so becomes a ready source of contamination of the water-supply.
Conservancy
and latrines.
Water-supply.
IX. Diet.—Talagang, with its neighbourhood, is a fruitful, grain-growing district and
supports numerous heads of horned cattle. Supplies are therefore very abundant and cheap.
The fresh vegetables fail during the autumn months on account of the difficulty in obtaining
water; but this year potatoes were imported and sold at very reasonable rates. Scurvy occurred
in a very mild form in some few of the men; the difficulty, indeed, consists in persuading the
soldiers from the trans-Indus districts that fresh vegetables are a most essential and wholesome
part of their diet; they pin their faith to the flesh forming foods and eschew fresh vegetables.
The prevalence of tœnia among the Mahomedan soldiers in the regiment, as well as among the
flesh-eaters of the civil community, which has been casually brought to notice while the victims
were being treated for some other disease, seems to show that the cattle of the district are in-
fested with the cyst.
X. Clothing.—The Transport Regulations so rigidly limit the amount of baggage to be
taken by native soldiers on the line of march, that it was impossible for the men to provide
themselves with a sufficiency of warm bedding and warm undress clothing to meet their re-
quirements while exposed, for nearly four months, to the severe cold of a northern Punjab winter
in camp at Rawal Pindi. Fresh supplies of straw could not compensate for the want of suffi-
ciently warm bedding, and, accordingly, towards the end of the course, catarrhal affections had
become extremely prevalent, and the exposure was manifestly affecting the health of the most
elderly and less robust among the men. No doubt the men might have been screened from the
keen blighting winds, which added so much to their sufferings at night, by raising a low wall
around inside each tent—a plan which was carried out in the hospital tent with much advantage.
The circumstances of the two cases, however, differed in this,—that while from the small number
of patients in the hospital tent the amount of space per head was ample, on the other hand, the
number of men which the regulations prescribe for a sepoys' tent implies rather close packing.
The question had to be determined whether greater injury would accrue from the depressing
effects of cold upon the vital powers generally and its specific irritant action upon the respira-
tory surfaces, or from the continued respiration of an atmosphere contaminated by an excess of
carbonic acid and organic exhalations from the skin and lungs, which would necessarily result
from crowding, associated with comparative exclusion of external air; and, having witnessed
Clothing.