MEERUT DIVISION.
101
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding.—Strength—present 967.56; absent, 183.36; total,
1,150.92.
Sickness,
mor
-
tality
and
invaliding.
STATION.
PERIOD.
Strength.
TOTAL
NUMBER OF
D a i l y a v e r a g e n u mb e r o f s i c k .
PER CENT OF
STRENGTH PER
ANNUM.
From
To
Admis-
sions.
Deat hs .
Admis-
sions.
Deaths.
D a i l y a v e r a g e s i c k .
Head-quarters at Roorkee . . . 1st January
1874.
31st Decem-
ber 1874.
457.41
367
6
9.91 80.2
1.3
2.1
Detachment, Peshawar . . . Ditto . . .
Ditto . . .
166.54
423
1
8.8 253.9
.6
5.3
" Rawal Pindi . . . Ditto . . .
Ditto . . .
90.40
122
. . .
3.12 135.0 None. 3.45
" Famine Districts 21st Febru-
ary 1874.
28th October
1874.
232.05
321
. . .
13.1 202.1 Do.
5.6
" Chuckrata . . . 1st Jan. 1874 20th Janu-
ary 1874.
7.24
1
. . .
. 1 98.8 Do.
1.38
" Duffla expedi-
tion.
16th Decem-
ber. 1874.
31st Decem-
ber 1874.
13.92
26
. . .
. 2 9884.2 Do.
2.08
TOTAL . . .
. . .
. . .
967.56 1,260
7
35.4 130.2
. 7
3.6
Number of deaths in hospital, 7 ; out of hospital, 2 ; total, 9 ; per cent of total strength
.78
" invalided, 12 ; " " " . . .
1.04
" sent on sick leave, 17 ; " " " . . .
1.47
" of days spent in hospital, 12,922; per admission, 10.2 per man of total strength
11.3
" " on sick leave 2503 ; per man 41.72 " " . . .
2.17
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . .
13.47
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— The year has passed without any very marked
frequency of any special type of disease, unless the prevalence of quotidian ague in the
Peshawur detachment be noticed ; but, in that unhappy valley, the years in which sickness, and
more particularly fever, is not rife is the execution.
The admissions from ague are altogether in the first rank as the cause of disease. The
Peshawur detachment had 228 admissions from this disease alone out of a gross total of 423,
and an-annual average strength of 166. No other station approaches this. Rawal
Pindi comes next, with 52 admissions out of an average of 90 strong. Famine districts
have 49, with an average annual strength of 232, and Roorkee gives 29 also, with an annual
average strength of 457. This is not so favourable in regard to Roorkee as 1873 ; but the
percentage is still so low that the presence of ague in this part of the country may be con
-
sidered at a minimum at the present. And the type also seems to have been mild at all
localities, for I find that out of 382 admissions, 373 were discharged to duty, I died, I was
sent on sick leave, 2 had the disease changed, and 6 were still under treatment on the 1st
January 1875.
Division B of general diseases furnishes a very important class of sickness to soldiers,
and there has been a very marked increase in many directions during 1874 in this regiment.
Rheumatic complaints give 70, syphilitic affections 79, others 5 admissions. Rheumatism,
especially in its favourite form of lumbago, is a disease which, in the native army, is often very
trying to the surgeon, and requires both care and prudence in its treatment. On the one hand,
there is the annoyance of frequent imposition and malingering, the difficulty in realizing the
precise nature of its chronic and invisible form, and the disappointment of practice ; there
are so few remedies on which reliance can be placed for effectual relief. On the other hand, it
is certain that the complaint does exist, and that natives, and soldiers most of all, with their
insufficient under-clothing, their habits of sleeping on the ground, and their exposure on
night duties, are very liable to its attacks. And, often, I am extremely puzzled between my
duty to the Staté and my duty to the patient. It is idle to keep cripples in the army ; it is
hard to discharge men who may recover. In the Sappers this difficulty is greater than pro
-
bably in any other corps, for such real hard labour is often required of the sepoys, that the
man who has either his back or knees weak and painful cannot do it. I regret to say that
my experience is against coddling such men in hospital. In the first place, prolonged idleness
is not good, either for mind or body ; and in the second, it encourages a spirit of malingering
—
by which I do not wish it to be understood that the rheumatism cases are all pretence—but
it favours that disposition in any to whom sick leave, dissatisfaction with duty, or discharge
from the service, is a convenience. My own view is that the surgeon's treatment of such men
would be greatly relieved, and the good of the service advanced, if recruiting for the native
army was assimilated to the short service enlistment of the Euroneans. The only way in
which inefficient soldiers of short service and bad constitutions can now be got rid of is
through an annual invaliding board. But, if it is so difficult for the medical officer, in the first
instance, to satisfy himself regarding the reality, or otherwise, of this disease, it is ten times
more so for him to satisfy others. But if the periods of continuous service were limited to five
years, and thereafter to re-engagement with a small bounty, or discharge and gratuity, the
Prevalent
diseases.
Ague.
Rheumatic
diseases.
Malingering.
A remedy pro
-
posed.
B 1