Epidemics.
Vaccination. .
PUNJAB FRONTIER FORCE.
203
XVI. Principal causes of sickness. —The following table shows the class of diseases causing
admissions and their relative frequency:—
Principal
causes of
sickness.
A g u e s a n d s e - q u e n c e s .
B r o n c h i a l a f f e c - t i o n s .
B o w e l c o m - p l a i n t s .
Op h t h a l mi a .
R h e u ma t i s m.
I n j u r i e s .
Syphilitic. Hepat i t i s . Ulcers.
P n e u mo n i a .
O t h e r d i s e a s e s .
TOTAL.
January
36
13
4
1
6
4
2 ...
. . .
. . .
45
1 1 1
February
60
17
6
. . .
7
2
4 ...
. . .
2
29 127
March
36
4
6
3
6 ...
4
1
. . .
. . .
2 5
8 5
April
32
6
17
4
3
. . . . . .
1
. . .
. . .
3 4
9 7
May
33
3
11
5
2
2
2
. . .
. . .
. . .
3 6
9 4
June
22
2
6
5
3
6
4
. .
. . .
. . . 34
8 2
July
24
2
5
9
2
. . .
1
. . . ...
. . .
4 9
9 2
August
40
8
6
4
2
2
. . .
1
. . .
. . .
41 104
September
42
3
5
7
1
1
1
. . . ...
..
35
95
October
51
2
3
2
2
4
1
1
2
. . .
33 101
November
43
7
7
2 ...
4
2 ...
1
. . .
3 9
1 0 5
December
45
13
2
3
3
6
3
. . .
1
. . .
43 119
TOTAL
464
80
78
45
37
31
24
4
4
2 . 443 1,212
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.—Five deaths occurred at head-quarters; they all
took place in hospital. Phthisis caused two, old standing heart disease one, pneumonia one,
and diarrhœa one. The down-country men, especially Goorkhas, are more liable to con
s u m p - t i o n t h a n P a t h a n s ; b u t w h e t h e r t h i s i s d u e t o t h e c l i m a t e o r m o d e o f l i v i n g o f t h e d i f f e r e n t
races, I am not prepared to say. The Sikhs and Goorkhas generally suffer much from ague
and its sequences, during the first two years of their residence in Yousufzai, before they
become acclimatized.
XVIII. Epidemics.—There were no epidemics during the year.
XIX. Vaccination.—One Goorkha recruit, who joined at the commencement of the hot
weather, and was unprotected, was vaccinated. The men are, I believe, without exception, pro
-tected from small-pox, either by previous attacks or inoculation.
Principal
causes of
mortality.
XX. Recommendations.—The state of the drainage in the fort was brought under the
consideration of the commanding officer, and the advisability of having two iron receptacles
in each urinal recommended. These have been applied for, and if provided will, I have no
doubt, be a decided improvement. The state of some of the wells and sewers was also
brought under notice for the purpose of being cleaned.
XXI. Remarks.—In this place I would note the freedom from pneumonia enjoyed by
the corps; there were only two cases of the disease during the year. I attribute this to the
capital clothing, and the care that is taken of the men to see that, when off duty and at
night, they are warmly clad during the cold weather, which at Mardan is very severe. My
experience of the disease, as seen in Northern India, leads me to look upon neglect in this
respect as the principal, if not the only, cause. It is true that the disease sometimes appears
like an epidemic; but, when saying that it is contagious, one must remember the circumstances
under which it arises, and how prone the natives are not to take sufficient precautions against
extremes of temperature—going about in the cold frosty mornings with the clothes they have
been accustomed to wear in June and July. Notwithstanding the unhealthiness of the native
troops at Peshawar and Nowshera during the past year, the sickness at Mardan has not
been unusually severe. The men have completely recovered from the effects of the intermit-
tent fevers which prostrated them in 1873 and the commencement of 1874, and, in my
opinion, could not be in better condition for service than they are at present.
Recommenda-
tions.
Remarks.
Inspected on the 23rd of March by Mr. Banister; he reports as follows:—
"The drainage of the fort had, undoubtedly, been improved since my
previous visit, but was still defective, and received the contents of the
urinaries, which ought to be disposed of in other ways. The barracks also, from
their enclosed position along the ramparts, could not but be very indifferently
ventilated, and as they were always overcrowded on the return of men from
furlough, and notoriously not worth the expense of repair, it seems like the
loss of a great opportunity that, on the occurrence of the earthquake, on the
night of the 12th of December, which shattered every building to its foun-
dations, except the hospital, the erection of new lines on the open plain should
not have been made a pressing and urgent demand." The hospital, as previously
reported, is incapable of being made, by any arrangement, a fit habitation for
the sick; the arrangements in it were as good as circumstances admitted of, and
the equipment was complete.
Inspection.