Lock Hospita
at Cawnpore.
Accommoda-
tion.
Sickness.
30
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
State of the
regiment.
health would be the result. In the ordinary course of events no year for a long cycle will
show such a happy result as the one just gone by ; but, given all the favourable circumstances
I have just alluded to, the results are surely more than satisfactory when in the short space of
four years a regiment heading the Bengal Army in sickness and mortality that had been
almost decimated in one year and that was reported as totally unfit for service, is brought
to such a state that it was even last year reported as one of the healthiest, and with
the most physically robust men in the service, how much more so is it this year when
the admissions are fewer than those of last year by 28 and the mortality considerably less than
o n e h a l f ?
Clothing.
Advantage of
preventing
fever in the
rains.
From the first shower of the rains all men on night duty in the regiment were obliged to
wear a warm coat, and although it might at times be a little uncomfortable, still there was the
one great fact in its favor that at that notedly feverish time, little or no increase in that
disease took place. Many men take it almost as a necessary consequence that fevers will and
must increase in the rains ; if they do, the men will most certainly suffer for it afterwards in
being (debilitated from that most debilitating disease) utterly unable to withstand the great
variations of temperature later on as the cold weather is setting in.
If fevers are prevented in the rains you will have your men not alone able to stand, but
to enjoy and benefit by, the cold weather, so that when the next hot season sets in, they may be
able to resist the debilitating effects which most certainly accompany it.
Inspection.
Sanitary
conditions.
Health of the
men.
Hospital,
Deputy Surgeon-General J. P. Walker made the medical inspection of
this regiment on the 24th March 1875. He reports all the sanitary arrange-
ments connected with the lines, huts, drainage, water-supply, &c., &c., to have
been very satisfactory. The men were inspected in undress on parade, and.
found to be in good condition for service, and the recruits had been carefully
selected. The hospital and its belongings were clean and tidy, the treatment
of the patients was quite satisfactory, and the medical details of the hospital
were well carried out. Medical subordinates were well reported on.
Health of the
troops.
Lock Hospital at Cawnpore.— Deputy Surgeon-General J. P. Walker
inspected this hospital on the 24th March 1875. Surgeon Deane, 35th Regi-
ment Native Infantry, had been in charge during 1874. Since the last inspec-
tion, additional accommodation for 48 patients has been provided, and now 78
patients can be treated in the hospital without overcrowding. The average
number of daily sick during the year 1874 was 61.48, which is nearly double
that of 1873. The average number of prostitutes on the register for 1874
was 232.00, so that the percentage of sick to average strength was at the rate
o f 2 6 . 5 0 , o r , i n o t h e r w o r d s , n e a r l y o n e - f o u r t h o f t h e r e g i s t e r e d p r o s t i t u t e s
at Cawnpore were diseased during 1874; this is an amount of disease which can
be hardly imagined to exist. Of the prostitutes admitted, 10 . 58 per cent. were
suffering from gonorrhoea, and 28 . 08 from primary syphilis.
The average strength of European troops in the station for 1874 was
926.33, and from this number 33.91 per cent. were admitted from primary
venereal affections ; the admissions from the European troops from primary
venereal affections is 8.61 per cent. higher than they were in 1873.
Special police
Hospital.
Weekly in-
spections.
Surgeon Deane reports " that the employment of special police was not
followed by the good results which might have been anticipated," and he also
states, " the magistrate of Cawnpore asserts that until a much more extended
power to register women is given to him, he can do but little to check the
disease amongst the troops."
The general sanitary condition of this hospital and all its surroundings
were satisfactory. Weekly inspections of all the prostitutes are now made,
in the city by the civil surgeon, and in. the hospital by Surgeon A. Deane.
The patients were clean and well cared for, and the interior of the hospital
was well attended to as to cleanliness, and to the minor details for the
comfort and proper treatment of the inmates.