Principal
causes
sickness.
Conjunctivitis.
Chronic
Rheumatism,
SAUGOR DISTRICT. 57
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.—Quotidian ague and hypertrophied spleen.
Quotidian ague caused 226 out of a total of 572 admissions during the year. The greatest
number of admissions for this disease, placed in their numerical order, occurred during the
months of September 38, August 36, May 26, June 25, July 17.
Conjunctivitis. —This disease was also most prevalent during the hot weather and rains.
I am unable to assign any cause for its prevalence.
Chronic Rheumatism.— I s , I b e l i e v e , a v e r y c o m m o n c o m p l a i n t i n t h e d i s t r i c t o f B u n d e l -
khund. The greatest number of cases occur during the cold season, and at the drying up of
the rains; causes cold and damp. The men of the 20th Madras Native Infantry may be con-
sidered as particularly predisposed to this disease, from the fact that when ordered to march
from Sitabuldi, Central Provinces, to Nowgong, they had only just recovered from an epidemic
of dengue, which disease invariably gives rise to rheumatic sequelæ.
Blister feet.—Twenty cases of blister feet were admitted during the year; these were
only the severer cases that required treatment in hospital. Sixty-three cases were so slight as
not to require admission into hospital, and were treated by simply giving three or four days
"hoots' excuse." Total number of blister feet during the year was 83.
Blister feet
General debility.—The 20th Madras Native Infantry has been unfortunate in the stations
it has occupied during the last 15 years. At the Straits the men suffered from fevers and
rheumatism; at Bellary, one of the hottest stations in the Madras Presidency, they also
suffered from fevers and rheumatism; at Sitabuldi, Nagpore, Central Provinces, they suffered
from an epidemic of dengue, and now at Nowgong, Bundelkhund, they are subjected to greater
variations of temperature than they have hitherto been accustomed to. The greater number
of men who present themselves at hospital are in a thin, anæmic, debilitated condition,
requiring a long rest in hospital and tonic stimulating treatment. Nine cases of "simple
general debility" have been treated during the year; out of these one has been "pensioned"
and one sent on"nine months'
s i c k l e a v e . "
XVII. Principal causes of mortality. —Two men died during the year, one on the 18th
June from "sunstroke," the other on the 28th August from "malignant cholera."
XVIII. Epidemics .—For the first time, for several years, a serious epidemic of cholera broke
out within the cantonment of Nowgong, Bundelkhund. The first case occurred on the 27th
July and the last on the 4th October 1875. Eighty-nine cases in all occured, of these, 49 proved
fatal. For two months previous to its appearance here, cholera had been prevalent in the Banda
and Chutterpur Districts. The disease appeared to exercise a kind of selection as to the
villages attacked, passing by several large insanitary villages and attacking smaller and better
cared-for places.
General
debility.
Prim ip
:muses of
mortality.
Epidemics.
Outbreak, the first case —Occurred on the 27th July; the sufferer was a native—a "Fukeer"—
who had come from Punnah to Nowgong viâ Chutterpur (where cholera had been rife since
the 11th July). This man died on the 27th July, on the edge of the cantonment boundary,
close to the lines of the 20th Madras Native Infantry. The second ease occurred in the sudder
bazar on the 28th July.
Sadder Bazar. —On the 26th July, a lohar misteri, living in the village of Bilhari, which
is situated on the south-east of the cantonment, in close proximity to the 3rd Bengal Cavalry
lines, was suddenly attacked with purging and vomiting, and died the same evening. An uncle
of his (also a lohar misteri) living in the sudder bazar, Nowgong, attended the burning
ceremony and afterwards slept in the deceased's house. On his return home on the 28th July
he was attacked with cholera and died. This was the second case. The last case in the sudder
bazar occurred on the 15th September 1875. Total number attacked 63; deaths 32. Three
grass-huts, each 30x13'x8', and each capable of accommodating eight patients, were erected
outside the sudder bazar on the far side of the Dhorea Nuddee; here all cases were treated.
The huts, bedding and furniture were subsequently burnt.
Outbreak.
Sudder
Bazar.
20th Madras Native Infantry .—A boy living in the Madras regimental bazar was
attacked on the 10th August, and died on the 14th August. This was the first case in these
lines. Eleven cases in all occurred in the Madras lines; of these eight proved fatal. One sepoy
only was attacked and died, the remainder were camp-followers. The first case was attacked
on the 10th August, the last on the 17th September. The regimental bazar is situated
at t he nort h-west end of t he l i nes. There are 325 hut s i n t he l i nes; onl y t he occupant s of
ten huts suffered. All the cases of cholera that occurred in the Madras lines were confined to
the inhabitants of the bazar and adjacent line-huts.
Precautions.—The sepoys and their families were prohibited from going into the sudder
bazar while cholera was prevalent there. The line bazar shop-keepers, however, were allowed
to visit the sudder bazar to make purchases to replenish their stock-in-trade. I have no
doubt but that cholera was thus introduced into the Madras lines, and, as before related, localized
itself in the bazar. The sepoy who was attacked and died' was treated in a tent pitched on
the north-east of the lines; the other cases (principally women and children) were treated in
t h e i r o w n h u t s .
20th Madras
Native
Infantry.
Precautions.
Introduction.
Purification of huts. —The floorings of the infected huts were dug up to a depth of
6 inches; the contaminated earth carted to a distance and buried, and fresh earth put in its place
the walls scraped and leeped, and the huts fumigated. There was nothing peculiar in the
construction or ventilation of the infected huts, nor any noticeable sanitary defects in th
e
portion of the lines attacked.
Purification
of huts.
XIX. Vaccination. —Sixty-four childeren living in the lines of the right wing, Vaccination.
20th Madras Native Infantry, were vaccinated during the year. From a personal examination
P