Principal
causes of
sickness.
Principal
causes of
mortality.
Epidemics.
Cases of
cholera in
Agra.
87
MEERUT DIVISION.
XV. Sickness, mortality and inraliding.— Strength of the regiment
Present
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
. 622.99
Absent
. .
.
.
.
.
.
•
•
•
.
74.00
Total .
.
696.99
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
STATION.
PERIOD .
Strength.
TOTAL NUMBER
O F
Daily
average
number
of sick.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
From
To
Admis- s i o n s . Deaths.
A dmis-
sions. Deaths.
Daily
average
sick.
Head-quarters at Agra
. 1st Jan. 1877 31st Dec. 1877 479.30 3.24
6
10.87 67.59 1.25 2.27
Detachment Alwar
. Ditto • . 19th Jan. 1877
55.00
1
...
0.57 35.33 ...
1.03
”
Fatehgarh. . Ditto .
. 24th Dec.1877 144.00
74
...
3.84 52.39 ...
2.66
”
Muttra
. 28th Dec.1877 31st Dec. 1877
88.00
. . .
...
...
...
...
...
TOTAL
...
...
...
622.99
399
6
14.48 64.04 0096 2.32
Number of deaths in hospital, 6; out of hospital, 8; total
14; per cent, of total strength
.
2.00
„
invalided .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
14;
„
”
.
.
2.00
„
sent on sick leave
.
. .
.
.
.
8;
,,
”
.
. 1.14
”
of days spent iu hospital 4,668; per admission . 11.75; per man of total strength .
. 6.69
„
”
on sick leave, 745; per man
.
93.12;
„
”
.
.
1.06
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength
.
7.75
Fourteen men were invalided for discharge, of whom nine were long service and five short service men.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— The year under review compares favorably with the
preceding one as regards the number of admissions from all causes, the former giving 399,
including the sick of the detachments, against 560 of the latter. As usual the most fruitful
source of sickness has been the class of malarial fevers, from which there were 128 admissions;
next in order come dysentery 35, boils 27, catarrhal ophthalmia 20, and blisters of the feet
14 admissions.
XVII.
Principal causes of mortality.— Six deaths occurred in hospital at the head-
quarters of the regiment. Of these, one was due to enteric fever, two to small-pox, one to
heart disease, one to gun-shot wound (homicidal), and one to cholera. Eight men died out of
hospital, four while on sick leave, one on general leave. One was drowned in the Jumna;
one committed suicide at Fatehgarh, and one died in the lines from serous apoplexy.
XVIII. Epidemics.—No outbreak of sickness amounting in magnitude to an epidemic,
speaking strictly, can be said to have taken place in the regiment during the year. Four cases
of small-pox occurred, of which two proved fatal. Cholera also made its appearance after having
been for some time prevalent in the district, resulting in seven attacks, including officers and
camp-followers, and three deaths. The disease had been reported as being rife in G walior and
Morar before showing itself in Agra, and previous to the latter event, orders were issued by the
Brigadier General commanding the station prohibiting the troops from proceeding in . the direc-
tion of these places.
The first cases reported in the Agra district were said to have occurred on the 25th
September, and were chiefly confined to the southern part bordering on the Dholepore territory.
There was also an outbreak in the northern part of the district limited to Etmanpore.
The disease was next observed in the city, where a man, residing at Kutcherry Ghât, and
who had not been without its bounds for some months, nor had apparently been exposed to any
source of infection, was attacked.
On the 28th September the first case was reported in cantonments among the native
population, and since then there have been in all 36 cases with 14 deaths, not including that of
a Government bank agent in the civil community; the last occurring on the 14th December
in the person of a doolie-bearer who had arrived the previous day from Morar.
On the 3rd October a private of the 4-60th Rifles, who had been for a week previously
in hospital in the fort suffering from febricula, the result of excessive drinking, was attacked
and died, and subsequently there were three additional cases, all fatal, in the lines of the same
battalion. Of these, two were women, one of whom had been in hospital for 6 days, suffering
from some other affection before she was seized. The third was a man who had been a prisoner
in the cells for a fortnight.
In the 13th Native Infantry, on the 15th October, an old woman was attacked in the regi-
mental bazar and died on the 19th.
The first case observed in the 8th Native Infantry took place on the 17th October in the
person of the wife of one of the bandsmen, a young woman of 12. The symptoms, which
were most marked from the beginning, were said to have set in at 11 P.M., but the circumstance
vas not reported until 6 the following morning when she was seen by the hospital assistant,
and by myself at 7, by which time collapse was pronounced. From this condition she never
recovered, death taking place the same evening. This patient, with her husband and father-
in-law, occupied one takant h e b a n d s m e n ' s h u t s a t t h e n o r t h - e a s t c o r n e r o f t h e l i n e s . T h e s e c o n d
and the third cases were sepoys living in Section 3, G. Company, a distance of 100 yards from
this spot. The fourth was a woman in the regimental bazar, 340 yards further distant; while the
fifth and sixth were sepoys residing in Sections 1 and 2, H. Company, 10 yards distant from
each other and 20 yards from No. 3 Section, G. Company. All the cases there fore, except that
o f
t h e w o m a n i n t h e r e g i m e n t a l b a z a r , w e r e c o n f i n e d t o a v e r y l i m i t e d a r e a . T h e d a t e s o f
Cases in the
8th N. I.