Principal
causes of
sickness.
F e v e r a n d r a i n f a l l .
SAUGOR DISTRICT. 53
The hospital, which has been occupied by the sick since the 2nd November, was previously
occupi ed by t he si ck of D-3 Royal Art i l l ery, and I bel i eve i n former years was t he hospi t al
of the old light cavalry. It is a roomy building, situated on the left flank of the new lines
at a short distance. It is, in my opinion, suitable in every respect for the treatment of native
sick soldiers, and is almost the same as the old standard native infantry hospital of the Company's
time. It consists of a long centre ward, two entrance vestibules, four corner rooms (for office,
medicine, and dispensing store-room, and a room convenient for isolating a case of contagions
disease, or treating a case in a quite darkened atmosphere). On either side of the centre ward
is a long closed verandah, wide enough for receiving patients, too numerous to treat in the
centre ward when fever is in excess after an ordinary rainy -season; and the outer wall of this
closed verandah is protected from the direct rays of the sun by an open, narrow verandah.
Dimensions of centre ward are—
Descri pt i on of t he new
hospital.
Length
112 feet
The centre of the hospital roof is open, and
protected. by a tiled ridge 2 feet high,
w h i c h l e t s i n l i g h t a n d l e t s h e a t e d a i r
pass off from the centre ward.
Width
20 ,,
Height, building's
centre.
21,,
Height. outer wall
16
,,
Accommoda-
tion available.
It accommodates 32 patients. Its area is 2,240 square feet. Its cube is 41,440 cubic feet,
and this divided by 32, gives 1,295 cubic feet breathing-space per patient. The closed
verandahs are 10 feet wide, and their outer wall 11 feet high, so that each verandah could be
used as a sick ward if necessary; moreover the verandah doors are made on the venetian principle,
so as to secure ventilation through them, and there are archways in the walls separating the
centre ward from the verandahs. The out-houses of the hospital are in rear, and the wash-house
is approached by a covered way and detached from the hospital atmosphere; the cook-room is
divided for Hindoos and Mussalmans, and dead-house,—all in suitable positions. Suitable
quarters have yet to be provided for medical and hospital—subordinates.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding.— Strength of regiment—
Present
374.52
Absent
80.67
Total
455.19
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding,
STATION.
P E R I O D .
Average
strength
present.
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Daily
average
number
of sick.
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
From
To
Admis s i o n s . Deaths.
Daily
average
sick.
Admi
s s i o n s . Deaths.
Head-quarters at Nowgong
1st Jan. 1877 31st Dec. 1877 255 .29
259
N o d e a t h s i n s t r e n g t h p r e s e n t .
7.84 101 .45 none. 3.07
Detachment at Saugor
Ditto
13th Feb. 1877
7 6 .
none.
none.
none. none. none.
Detachment at Nagode
Ditto
31st Jan. 1877 104.45
5
2.19 56. 36 none. 2.09
Detachment at Sutna
3rd Feb. 1877 31st Dec. 1877 108.09
79
2.15 80.35 none. 1.98
Total
. . .
...
374.52
343
. . .
9.99 91.58 ...
2.67
Number of deaths in hospital, nil; out of hospital, 1 ; total
1; per cent. of total strength
.21
„
invalided
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
18; "
"
3.95
„
sent on sick leave .
.
.
.
.
.
.
4;
"
"
. 8 7
„
of days spent in hospital
3,552; per admission
10.35; per man of total strength
7.80
,, ,,
on sick leave
597; per man
149.25;
,, ,,
1.31
by 2 remaining 1.1.77 X4
sent in 1877.
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength present
9.11
One man died whilst on furlough in Peshawur District (stated from dysentery).
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.—One
hundred and seventy cases of
fever were admitted, against 338 in 1876.
It seems very evident that the absence of a regular rainy season in 1877 has been the
cause of this decrease in fever.
In my reports on the 31st Punjab Native Infantry at Mooltan for 1874 and 1875, I pointed out
that it was worthy of notice that, in that naturally dry climate, the admissions for fever in 1873,
1874 and 1875, appeared to be in direct proportion to amount of rainfall in each of those years.
The atmosphere of Nowgong has, by the scarcity of rain in 1877, been reduced almost to the
naturally dry condition of that of Mooltan, but without the canal irrigation system, which
surrounds Mooltan, and on which cultivation in that neighbourhood depends annually on the
rising of the river after the melting of the snow in the hills above the river's source. Here, in
Nowgong, we find that with a rainfall of only 17½ inches in 1877, we admit only 170 fevers,
whilst with a rainfall of about 46 inches in 1876 there were admitted 338 fevers, and this affecting
the same corps, in the same locality, two years consecutively. These facts seem to be in favour of
the theory, that an atmospheric impurity (which our forefathers named malaria) does exist
whenever we have sufficient rain, or canal moisture and heat combined, to generate its zymotie
character (perhaps, as some have suggested, in the ancient debris of the old forest bed which lies
O