120
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF TEE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
STATION.
PERIOD.
Strength.
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Daily
average
number of
sick.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
F r o m
To
Admis- sions. Deaths.
Admis-sions. Deaths.
Daily
average
sick.
Head-quarters at Roorkee . . . 1st Jan. 1875 31st Dec. 1875 673.20 533
1
14.56 79.17
. 1 4 2.1
Depôt at Roorkee . . . 6th Nov. 1875 Ditto . . . 40.88
29
. . .
1.59 462.37
. . . 3.8
Detachment at Peshawar . . . 1st Jan. 1875 Ditto . . . 193.71 374
. . .
9 . 1 1 193.07
. . . 4.7
Ditto at Rawal Piudi . . . Ditto . . . Ditto . . . 107.
80
1
1.56 74.76
. 9 3 1.4
Ditto at Duffla Expedition 1st Jan. 1875 19th Mar. 1875 14.
27
. . .
.45 914.15
. . . 3.2
Total . . .
. . .
. . .
1,028.83 1,043
2
27.25 101.38
. 1 9 2.65
Number of deathsin hospital, 2; out of hospital, 9; total, 11; per cent. of total strength . . . .96
" i n v a l i d e d . . . 4 2 ; " " . . . 3.69
" s e n t o n s i c k l e a v e . . . 3 7 ; " " . . .
3.25
" of days spent in hospital, 9,946; per admission, 9.53; per man of total strength . . . 8.73
" " o n s i c k l e a v e , 5 , 8 9 5 ; p e r m a n , 1 5 9 . 3 ; " " . . .
5.17
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . . 13.90
Principal
causes of
sickness.
Syphilis.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness .—Ague, as usual, stands beyond all distance first of all
in the catalogue of prevalent diseases. The Peshawar detachment suffered most, giving a gross
total of 251 admissions for this one disease out of 374 total. Roorkee, both head-quarters and
depôt, comes next with 153 out of 534; but the difference of 'strength' in the two stations makes
the percentage much smaller. Rawal Pindi, on a strength of 107, much more than half of
Peshawar, has only six admissions: strange! that 100 miles which separates the two stations
should present such a constant and enormous difference in this single complaint. Looking
through the list of figures, I note no other disease, either by unit or class, which requires
comment; 1,148 blisters of feet have been a very numerous class at head-quarters, to be
explained by the drills and parades which are natuarally more prolonged and numerous there.
Moreover, the recruits furnish the largest proportion of these admissions, from the rawness of
their feet to be first put to drill in boots.
Syphilis, whether primary or secondary, has been very moderately present. It will be
remembered that the admissions from this disease were much above the average in 1874, owing
to the detachments in the famine districts contracting the disease very freely, and the congener
of syphilis, rheumatism, whether real or feigned, invariably claims a certain proportion of
admissions in the native army.
Skin diseases
&c.,
Principal
causes of mor
-
tality.
Epidemics.
Vaccination.
Skin diseases are tolerably frequent; respiratory affections few and trivial. Diseases of the
digestive organs are insignificant in every column. Contusions, boils, ulcers and minor local
injuries are abundant. As explained frequently in former annual reports, these injuries result
from the daily field work, the handling of tools, and from manual labour, which are incidental
to the daily routine of a sapper's duty.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality .—There have been altogether 11 deaths, viz., two in
hospital, one of them at Roorkee and one at Rawal Pindi, both ascribed to ague. The medi
-
cal officer reports the Rawal Pindi death to have occurred in a weakly patient without any
unusual or disturbing symptoms. In the Roorkee death, the preliminary attack of ague re
-
lapsed into a remittent, type; afterwards pneumonia appeared intercurrently, and was the im
-
mediate cause of death. A Goorkha recruit, who was sent home on sick leave, died some months
later in the hospital, 3rd Goorkhas, at Almora. A fourth man died in the lines of heart
-
disease a few days after having been invalided. A fifth case was a recruit who was supposed
to have been drowned in the canal, though I believe his body was never recovered. Lastly,
six men died at their homes while on sick leave, nearly all from chronic disease, accompanied
by organic changes, which foretold that result, such as phthisis, hæmatemesis, anæmia and
bronchial asthma.
It will be observed that all these deaths represent individual attacks of disease rather than
any prevailing or unusual types; moreover, the numbers are altogether too few to indicate any
influence of the diseases on the general health of the regiment.
XVIII. Epidemics.—A single case of cholera, followed by recovery, occurred in a camp
-
follower, viz., the hospital dresser on 16th June. The building was emptied of patients, and
left vacant a fortnight; no more cases appeared. A special report on the visit of cholera to
Roorkee in 1875 having been submitted by me, it is unnecessary to go again into details.
The particulars of the above cases are included in it.
XIX. Vaccination .—I have nothing more to add than what I wrote in my annual return
for 1874. In consequence of the severity with which the pustules were ruptured during drill,
and the unsatisfactory results all round, I have ceased to vaccinate the recruits of the year.
Inspection.
Inspected by the Deputy Surgeon-General of the Meerut Circle on the
28th October 1875. He reports that the sanitary condition of the lines