100
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
Conservancy
and latrines.
Hospital.
VII. Conservancy and La t r i n e s . — T h e r e h a s b e e n a m a r k e d i m p r o v e m e n t ' d u r i n g t h e c u r r e n t
year. Hitherto the able-bodied natives went to a field for purposes of nature, and the result
was a " zone of dirt" all round the station. The old, infirm, sick, women and children resorted
to latrines near the bazar, the soil being removed nightly and buried in pits outside canton
- m e n t l i m i t s . B u t t h e c o n d i t i o n o f t h e s e l a t r i n e s w a s o f t e n t h e s u b j e c t o f c o m p l a i n t ; a n d
the best that could be said of them was that they obviated the necessity of house privies,
which would have been worse. Lastly, the regimental urinals had been repeatedly objected
to by me as insanitary. The urine flowed into a blind well; there were 10 of these in the
lines; and it was certain that the drinking water of the wells would ultimately become polluted.
Early in the year the cantonment limits were extended 200 yards to the south; and on
the cultivated ground thus obtained, the usual trench and privy screens were located. This
provided that the natives should no longer poison the air with "the customs of the country."
Moreover, the bazar latrine has also been considerably modified, only one smaller enclosure
behind the bazar is tolerated, which, in future, is to be under regimental sanitary control.
Lastly, the urinals have been improved in their construction at considerable regimental
expense. The urine no longer disappears into the earth, but is received into "gurrahs" stand
-ing at hand; these are emptied into an iron tub, which is itself wheeled away outside canton
-ment limits, and the contents emptied into a natural water-course. These three improvements
are a marked advance on the sanitation of former years, and are probably due to the anxiety
which the visit of cholera in 1875 excited. It is hoped that they may to some extent be
efficacious in guarding against its return.
XIV. Hospital.—The building at present occupied is only a temporary structure, but it
has answered the purposes of an hospital sufficiently well during 1876, there having been no
strain on the demands for space, no epidemic disease, and . no cases requiring isolation. But
there is room for 30 beds, and this allows for a very moderate average of sick when, as was
the case this year, the strength of the corps at Roorkee has been for several months over 700
natives. The hospital out-offices, which were so much complained of last year, have been consid
-erably improved; but this is solely through regimental funds. The quarters for medical subor
- d i n a t e s a n d s e r v a n t s h a v e b e e n s c r e e n e d , e n l a r g e d , a n d m a d e c o m f o r t a b l e w i t h a w e s t v e r a n d a h .
sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding.—Strength of the corps
Present
1 0 0 9 . 3 1
Absent
1 3 8 . 1 5
Total.
1 , 1 4 7 . 4 6
STATION.
PERIOD,
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Dai l y
average
number of si ck.
PER CENT OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
From.
TO,
strength. Admi s-
sions. Deaths.
Admis- sions. Deaths D a i l y
average sick.
Roorkee
1st Jan. 31st Dec.
583. 42 654 3 21.74 112.09 .51 3 . 7 2
Peshawar
Ditto
Ditto. 240. 06 447 3 11.76 186.20 1.25 4 . 8 9
Rawal Pindi.
Ditto
Ditto
99.19 127 1 2.91 126.03 1 2 . 9 3
Delhi
22nd Oct. Ditto
86.54 77
1.21 458.63
1 . 3 9
TOTAL
1009.31 1,305 7 37.62 129.29 .69 3 . 7 3
Number of deaths in hospital 7; out of hospital 10; total .17; per cent. of total strength. 1 . 4 8
.
.
.
„ invalided. 19 ; „
„ . 1 . 6 6
„sent on sick leave.15; „ .„ 1' 31
„ of days spent in hospital 13.788; per admission.10 . 5 6 ; p e r m a n o f t o t a l s t r e n g t h . 12.02
„ „on sick leave 2,704; per man.180; „.
„
2. 44
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength. 14.46
Principal causes of sick
-ness.
XIV. Principal causes of sickness.— As in many previous reports, ague heads the list of
admissions by nearly double the numbers of any other disease. The season of attack has been
the same, viz., the close of the rains. when malaria has been generated by the heat of the sun
on decaying vegetation all over the plains; and I am of opinion that the development of this
disease is in a great measure due to insufficient undress clothing among the sepoys, and indeed
c,
amon natives of all classes in India. Of agues and febricula, there were 158 admissions out
among
of an average strength of 583 at Roorkee. This is less than ordinary. At Peshawar, with an
average strength of 240, there were 156 admissions, this unhealthy valley still keeping up a
high percentage of admissions, although not nearly so bad as in. 1875, when the average
strength was 193, and the number of ague cases 251. The Rawal Pindi detachment had a
strength of 99 and 40 admissions, a marked advance on 1875 , when a strength of 8. 0 had