PUNJAB FRONTIER FORCE.
215
Inspected on the 24th November. Mr. Banister reports that the lines had
been well looked after, and the hospital and its surroundings were in excellent
order; there was a good supply of medicines, instruments, and other neces--
saries. Of 30 recruits, three are stated to have been decidedly over aged.
Inspection.
3rd Regiment, Punjab Infantry—Edwardesabad
I. Medical Officers.—Surgeon H. Mallins, M. B., held medical charge of
the regiment throughout the
year, and has submitted the
annual sanitary report.
II. Location and
m o v e m e n t s . —
T h e r e g i m e n t w a s s t a t i o n e d a t
Kohat from the 1st to the 17th
of January, on which latter date
it marched for Edwardesabad,
where it has been located from
23rd January to the end of the
year. Detachments were furnish--
ed to the outposts of Latammar,
Jani Khel,—Kurram, and to the
sanitarium, Sheik Budin, and
for a short time, early in the year,
to Bahadur Khel.
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH.
Admissions. Deaths. Daily sick.
1870
Abbottabad, December
1868, from Kohat.
209.5
1.6
5 .
1871
Ditto
Ditto
137.9
2.5
3.4
1872
Kohat, December 1871
238.2
5.6
5.1
1873
Ditto
158.4
1.5
3.
1874
Ditto
147.
1.08
2.9
Average
178.2
2.46
3.88
1875
Edwardesabad, January
1875.
210.05
2.56
4.81
Medical
Officers.
Location and
movements.
V. Lines, &c.—The lines are in
the fort (Dhuleepghur). They are clean, but their construction is very faulty, being much
too low and ill-ventilated. When the full strength of a company is present, as happens
when the musketry instruction is going on, there is decided overcrowding.
VI. Drainage. —The drainage of the lines and the fort is satisfactory, having been much
improved in the early part of the year, by the construction of surface channels.
VII. Conservancy.—There is no change to be reported under this heading. The same
most unsatisfactory and grossly insanitary state of things continues as noticed in previous
reports. The cantonment is surrounded nearly on every side by fields, whose surface is
generally covered with high crops and perpetually irrigated. Those closest to the lines of the
different regiments are, as might be supposed, resorted to for purposes of nature. Those used
by the 3rd Punjab Infantry are within 50 yards from the Fort and emit a constant stench,
generally more perceptible towards evening. It is imposible that this station can ever become
even tolerably healthy as long as it continues, as at present, to lie bathed in an atmosphere of
fœcal miasm. The hospital latrine is in the same unsatisfactory condition as noticed in
previous reports.
VIII. Water-supply.—The water of the fort well is only used by the men in the hot
weather. In the cold season they drink the water as it runs along uncovered pucka channels
through the fort. The water comes from the river Kurram; the channel by which it is
conveyed commences about two miles above the cantonment; its whole course is through
cultivated fields, and by the time it arrives in the station the water must teem with impurities
IX. Diet.—The men diet themselves. The bazaar is clean and well supplied. No case of
under-feeding has come to notice during the year.
X. Clothing.—For summer, light kharki uniform; in the cold weather, posteens and
chogas—native shoes. The clothing is suitable to the climate.
XI. Duty and employment.— The duty has not been excessive. Nights in bed 5.20 in 7.
XII. Exercise.—There is no special form of exercise or amusement.
XIII. Marches and service.— The regiment marched from Kohat on the 17th January,
making six marches in all to this station, which was reached on 23rd January. The few admis
-sions into hospital on the march were chiefly for blistered feet. The men were paraded for each
march at 4 A. M., when it was freezing hard. The cold was severe and seemed to benumb the
men at first. I consider this very early marching inadvisable.
XIV. Hospital.—The unsatisfactory state of the latrine and of the servants' houses, as
noticed in previous reports, still remains unchanged. There is no dead-house.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding.— Strength of the regiment—
Present
598.42
Absent
141.41
Total
739.83
Lines , &c.
Drainage.
Conservancy.
Water -supply.
Diet.
Clothing.
Duty &c.
Exercise.
Marches and
service.
Hospital.
Sickness,
mortality, and
invaliding.