196
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
5th Goorkha Regiment (Dasara Goorkha Battation)—Abbottabad.
Medical
officers.
Location and
movements.
D e t a c h m e n t s .
Meteorology
and climate.
L i n e s .
Drainage,
Conservancy,
&c.
Duty and
employment.
I. Medical officers. —Surgeon-Major J. R. Johnson was in medical charge
throughout the year, and re
-ports as follows:—
II. Location and movements.
—The regiment was stationary dur
-ing the year, and occupied its per
-manent quarters, the left infan
-try barracks at Abbottabad.
Detachments.—Duties of this
nature were, up to the 18th of
October, similar to those of the
preceding year, when, owing to
the departure of the 5th Punjab
Infantry for the Delhi camp of
exercise, station and outpost work
previously divided between the
two corps devolved upon the
5th Goorkha Regiment. In November and December, duty was consequently above the
average, and the number of nights in bed per man was reduced from 5 to 4 in the week.
An increase in the rates of sickness for these months might at first sight be attributed to
excessive work, but was really due to a different cause. The admissions took place in men
recently returned from furlough and not amongst those employed on station and outpost
duty.
The detachment at Ughi is relieved monthly; it was absent from head-quarters 266
days, and its average strength for this period was 64·78. In March, a small party return
-ing from Goruckpore with recruits were attacked with cholera in Oudh, and ten of their number
perished.
IV. Meteorology and climate. —In January, February, March, and April the weather
was unusually bright, clear, and bracing. Rainfall in these months was either unevenly
distributed, or below the average in quantity, and the spring crops in high unirrigated tracts
suffered from drought. The failure, however, could not have been extensive, as it exerted no
unfavorable influence on the grain rates of the district. The regular or hot-weather rain was
excessive, and only ceased in the first week of October, and it is worthy of notice that these
prolonged rains, extending almost into the cold weather, were not productive of malarial fevers
either in the regiment or district. November and December were marked by severe and trying
cold, and snow fell heavily on the 27th of the latter month. Total rain-fall for the whole year
was 56 inches and one-tenth.
V. Lines. —No changes have been made in the barracks and lines, which are as described
in last year's report.
VI. VII. Drainage, Conservancy, &c. —The condition of the regiment and its surround
-ings, in reference to drainage, conservancy, water-supply, diet, and clothing, are unaltered, and
no changes worthy of special mention have been made in any of these respects in the year now
under review.
XI. Duty and Employment. —This has already been briefly alluded to in a previous
paragraph. Work was light, and the number of nights in bed 5 in 7 up to the 18th of October.
From that date until the end of the year, duty was heavy, and the number of nights in bed
only 4 in 7. The extra work thrown upon the regiment in November and December had no
unfavorable influence on the health of the men, and no sickness could be traced to this cause.
Y E A R .
S T A T I O N .
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
A d m i s s i o n s .
D e a t h s .
D a i l y s i c k .
1 8 7 0
Abbottabad
266·5
1·5
8·8
1 8 7 1
Ditto 147·7
1·7
3·7
1 8 7 2
Ditto
126·9
2·2
5·1
1 8 7 3
Ditto 110·6
1·8
3·3
1 8 7 4
Ditto 109
1·3
4·2
A v e r a g e 152·15
1·70
5·02
1 8 7 5
Abbottabad 98·30
2·14
4·42
Hospital.
XIV. Hospital. —The station hospital at Abbottabad, three wards of which are allotted to
the 5th Goorkha Regiment, has often been brought to notice as unsuited in many respects to its
purpose. Its most prominent defects are insufficient light and inadequate means for the
maintenance of a proper degree of heat in the wards during the cold weather. Large fires,
burning at one end only, benefit the patients in their immediate vicinity, and fail to keep up
a moderate degree of heat throughout the wards. It has lately been suggested that a more
uniform heat can be secured by substituting for the fire-places now in use, either hot-air flues
or hot-water pipes. A proposal to this effect has been sanctioned by Government, and the
work will soon be put in hand. The want of light is so great that it is often impossible to find
out the nature of a patient's disease without moving his bed from the dark main wards into
the verandah rooms, which, although cold and comfortless, are well lighted.
Sickness,
mortality, and
invaliding.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding.—Strength of the regiment—
Present
6 2 8 · 6 3
Absent
1 1 8 · 5 2
T o t a l
7 4 7 · 1 5