Medical his
- t o r y o f t h e
1st Goorkha
Regiment
on service in
the Malay
Peninsula.
Gymnasia
Hospitals.
Bath-rooms
in hospitals.
Hospitals in
Rawal Pindi
Circle, and
in North-West
-ern Frontier
stations.
Recruits.
xiv
interesting account of the expedition, written by Deputy Surgeon-General
Tyrell Ross, was published as an appendix to last year's report; and the
medical officers whose regiments were employed there have supplied all further
necessary information in their sanitary reports.
41. This year I publish, as an appendix, a very capital report written by
Surgeon C. F. Oldham, 1st Goorkha Regiment, which contains a complete,
practical, and interesting account of the medical and sanitary history of the
regiment while employed on service, from 26th November 1875 to 31st March
1876, in the Malay Peninsula.
42. The training the sepoys now undergo in station and regimental
gymnasia seems, wherever reported on, to have been highly useful in setting
them up, and in developing their muscles and general physique; and is, moreover,
quite in keeping with the natural direction of the sepoys' inclinations.
43. The hospitals may be considered to have generally afforded ample
accommodation for the sick, and to have been liberally supplied with medicines
and the surgical appliances necessary for their proper treatment. There was
a deficiency in some places of such minor articles as chicks, door-mats, &c.,
matters which, taken separately, may be of trifling importance, yet, when
considered collectively, tend to add to the comfort of the sick very materi
- a l l y . H o w e v e r , g r e a t i m p r o v e m e n t s i n t h e e q u i p m e n t o f h o s p i t a l s o f n a t i v e
regiments are being gradually introduced. As the new hospital for the sick
of the 2nd Goorkhas at Dehra was not likely to be completed for another
year, a temporary one was erected under regimental arrangements, with the
result of adding materially to the comfort of the sick and the convenience of
the men in the regiment. It was considered necessary too, on sanitary grounds,
that the old hospital, which was a long way from the new cantonments, and
whose walls and floors must have been saturated with the impure exhalations
of 40 years' occupancy, should be abandoned, since, by doing so, all communi
-cation with Dehra could, in case of any epidemic disease, be completely shut
off. On the completion of the new hospital, this temporary one will be made
over for the accommodation of the sick women and children of the regiment.
44. The patients, most probably on account of caste prejudices, do not
seem to have generally made much use of the hospital bath-rooms; but it was
of no small assistance to the medical officers to have had the means at hand
for the immediate preparation of baths of the required temperature in the
treatment of any cases requiring them.
45. The hospitals in the Rawal Pindi Circle are described as being very
cold and draughty, and on this account to be but badly suited for the proper
treatment of the sick during the cold season (particularly of those suffering
from chest and bowel diseases), even though they are provided with doors,
purdahs, and fires. I do not consider it necessary to dwell upon these state
-ments, because I consider it impossible that any one building can ever, quite
successfully, meet the requirements of seasons differing so widely from one
another; and, moreover, it is proper, where no emergency exists, to press for
improvement with moderation and judgment. In some hospitals, windows or
glazed doors still remain a want, and in these, on occasions of cold wind or
rain, when the doors are shut, the patients must, for the time being, remain in
almost total darkness. Here and there also accommodation, according to the
authorized scale, has not been provided for the medical subordinates and
hospital establishment, but the representations made regarding them will no
doubt be acted on.
46. In some regiments, the recruits were considered by the administrative
medical officers who inspected them to have been judiciously selected, while in
others (particularly in the Rawal Pindi Circle) a rather large proportion of
them were reported to be either of inferior physique or too old.
Instruction of
Duffadars in
16th Bengal
Cavalry in
some details
of minor
surgery.
47. Dr. Tuson has instructed some of the duffadars of his regiment, the
16th Bengal Cavalry, in the details of minor surgery; he considers that they
are quite competent to detect and put up a fracture on an emergency, when
the services of a medical officer or subordinate might not be available; they are
also said to be acquainted with the various means for controlling hæmorrhage,
and may, on field service, be turned to very good account.
Dr. Tuson reports that the duffadars were most willing to learn, and that
in this undertaking he received the entire approval and co-operation of his