PUNJAB FRONTIER FORCE.
161
Information subsequently gleaned from various sources leads me to conclude that in the
same period, between middle of July and beginning of October, small-pox was also present in the
civil station in rear of cantonment, but carelessly kept registers do not show the extent of
mortality to which it gave rise. With small-pox in the hamlets in front, the civil station
behind, and probably in the villages all round, it is but rational to suppose that the disease
gained access to cantonment through personal contagion, its ordinary channel of dissemination.
The main facts of the outbreak do not favor the hypothesis of its propagation through the
medium of milk. Had milk or any other article of diet in common use been the vehicle in
which the small-pox poison was disseminated, it is impossible to conceive that the disease would
have been restricted to the few seizures that actually occurred. From the 5th of October, the
date of first seizure, up to the present time, fourteen cases of small-pox have occurred in can-
tonment, and were distributed as follows:—
Small-pox.
Admissions.
Deaths.
4th Punjab Infantry soldiers' children
4
0
5th Goorkha—sepoys 3, children and camp followers 6
9
4
Hazara Mountain Battery—soldier's child
1
0
TOTAL
14
4
In the same period, fifteen cases, all amongst children, With one death, occurred in the civil
station.
Vaccination has long been systematically enforced in cantonments, so that, beyond the
proper isolation of those stricken with small-pox, no special precautions were needed to check
the outbreak. My efforts were mainly directed to arrest the spread of the disease in the neigh-
bouring civil station. With the assistance of the Deputy Commissioner, a special hospital was
organized for the treatment of cases in the civil lines, and all unprotected children in the Sudder
Bazar were successfully vaccinated. If present appearances are to be trusted, these measures
have at least aided in keeping within narrow limits an epidemic that at one time threatened
to assume serious proportions.
I believe that local outbreaks of small-pox in this part of the Punjab are often the work
of professional inoculators, who ply their trade chiefly in the autumn and cold weather
months.
XIX. Vaccination. —On enlistment, Goorkha recruits present a small percentage of unpro-
tected men, but the greater number of them, like adult natives of other classes, are protected
either by inoculation or previous small-pox. In a draft of 99 recruits enlisted during the past
year, all those unprotected were vaccinated at Gorakhpore, and the few in whom marks were
doubtful or unsatisfactory were re-vaccinated when they joined the regiment. A birth register
of children born in bazar and lines is kept in hospital and utilized for vaccination, when the
children are old enough and other circumstances are favorable to the operation.
Deputy Surgeon-General G. Banister states in his inspection report, that
he found all the sanitary and medical duties connected with this charge most
efficiently performed. The measures adopted to protect the regiment from small-
pox are particularly alluded to as having been both judicious and successful.
4th Regiment Punjab Infantry—Abbottabad.
Surgeon-Major J. W. Johnstone, M. D., in medical charge, reports:—
II. Location and movements
— T h e r e g i m e n t a l h e a d - q u a r t e r s
was located at Abbottabad from
1st January to 25th November,
en-route to Kohat, from 26th
November to 10th December, on
which date it reached Kohat,
where it is now quartered.
It is at present located in the
lines recently occupied by the 4th
Sikhs, but will, on the 15th Janu-
ary, take possession of those about
to be vacated by the . 3rd Punjab
Infantry.
Five detachments were during
the year deputed to Agror and
Hurripore, respectively, and two to Thundiana.
The sanitary circumstances of the corps at Kohat underwent no change
and were favorable to health; duties were light; nights in bed, 5 in 7.
R 1
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH.
Admissions. Deaths. Daily Sick.
1869
Kohat, Feb. 1869 from
Dera Ismail Khan
262.8
4.3
8.3
1870
Do. Do.
247.3
2.4
6.1
1871
Do. Do.
234.9
3. 7
4.5
1872
Abbottabad, Nov. 1871 127.5
2.1
3.2
1873
Do. Do. 110.5
. 8
2.1
Average
196.6
2. 6
4 . 8
1874
Abbottabad 131.9
1.35
2.5
Precaution.
Vaccination.
Inspection.
Medical
charge.
Location.
Sanitary cir
-
cumstances.