Principal
causes of
Sickness.
Blisters of
the feet.
Spleen,
Principal
causes of
mortality.
Epidemies.
24
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
Clothing .
Shoes.,
Duty.
Hospital.
Sick ness,
mortality and invaliding.
of an inferior quality, sometimes as much as half water, though sold at from 16 to 12 seers per
rupee. The gowallas have been fined, and the milk is tested by a galactometer. No milk of
less sp. gr. than 1019, and of slightly acid or neutral reaction, is allowed to be sold. I have
repeatedly had cows milked before me, in the dry season and in the rains, and I have never
found the sp. gr. less than 1026; frequently it is above 1030 at a temperature of 64°F.—
Sp. gr. of pure milk 1026-1030.5 (Parkes); 1028 (Meigs and Pepper); 1026-1031 (Blythe).
A committee of native officers meets daily to report on bazar supplies. It was the custom to
have samples of grain, &c., brought to the chaudri's house, in front of which the committee
assembled. I suspect that the samples and the bulk of grain did not always tally.
X. Clothing.—At my suggestion, the Commanding Officer has caused every sepoy to
provide himself with a warm-padded jacket for mufti wear, with, I believe, the effect of
preventing much chest and bowel disease. Ammunition boots (Cawnpore make, Rs. 2-8 per
pair) are worn in this regiment, a strap and buckle replacing the shoelace.
Duty has been light ; nights in bed 7.38. The sepoys do a little gardening,
which was not very successful, owing to drought.
The hospital was repaired during the year. The accommodation for hospital
assistants and servants is reported to be inadequate.
The supply of bedding is ample, the blankets given some time since by Colonel Anderson
being still in use, in addition to those recently supplied by the Commissariat Department.
X.V. Sickness. mortality and invaliding.—Strength of the regiment
—
Present
.
.
.
.
.
. .
.
.
.
. 621.87
Absent
. .
. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 6 7 . 8 0
Total
.
. 689.67
S T A T I O N .
P E R I O D
Strength.
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Daily
average
number of
sick.
PEE CENT. OF
S T R E N G T H P E R A N N U M .
F r o m
To
Admis-
sions. Deaths.
Admis- sions. Deaths.
D a i l y a v e r a g e s i c k .
Head-quarters at Allahabad. 1st Jan. 1877 31st Dec.1877 615.41 501
3
15.63 81.40 0.48 2.53
Detachment, Fort Chunar .
Do.
10th April 1877 87.41
23 ...
2.26 96.03
...
2.58
Total
.
...
. . .
621.87
524
3
16.23 84.26 0.48 2.60
Detail of
cholera cases.
Number of deaths in hospital, 3; out of hospital, 1; total .
4; per cent. of total strength
0.57
" „
invalided
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
18;
"
"
..
2.60
"
sent on sick leave
.
.
.
.
. .
11;
" „
" „
..
1.59
"
of days spent in hospital 5,941; per admission . 11.33; per man of total strength
8.61
"
"
on sick leave 1,161; per man
. 105.81;
"
"
.
1.68
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength
. 10.29
XVI. Principal causes of sickness. —The largest number of admissions was from
quotidian ague, this was 27.4 per cent., as compared with 54.14 per cent. for 1876, of the
total admissions. Dysentery gave 43 (18.2 per cent.) of admissions against 32 in 1876. There
were 22 admissions for chest diseases. There were 55 admissions for blisters of the feet
in 1877, as compared with none in 1876, and this, not because a number of men had not
been incapacitated from this cause during the latter year, but because it appears to have been
the custom to allow all men so suffering to do duty in "country shoes." When the return of
blistered feet was called for in April 1877, I determined to show the amount of disablement
caused by ill-fitting boots by admitting every man, if only for a day, so that the case
might be shown in the admission and discharge book, since such men would be unable to
perform a long march, if suddenly called upon to do so. The amount of splenic disease,
18 cases in 1877 against 2 in 1876, is large; and yet the percentage of admissions for
ague the total admissions in 18 77 was little more than half that for 1876.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality. —At head-quarters one man died from acute pneu--
monia, one from chronic pneumonic phthisis, and one from hemiplegia. One man died on sick
leave from acute pneumonic Phthisis.
XVIII. Epidemics.—Two separate cases of cholera occurred during the year, both fatal;
and one of small-pox, which recovered. Allahabad was remarkably free from cholera in 1877.
Small-pox was epidemic in the native city during November and December; it still continues,
and several cases have occurred among Europeans. The first cholera case occurred in April.
A man of the 35th Regiment Na- tive Infantry, e n r o u t e
f r o m C a l c u t t a , w a s a t t a c k e d i n t h e
train with severe vomiting and purging. The Brigade Major sent him to this hospital, where
he arrived in a state of collapse, and died two hours afterwards. He had suffered from diarrhœa
some days, and had neglected it. The second case occurred in May. A regimental bunniah,
who had not been out of the lines for seven days, was seized with cholera a few hours after
eating khira and kakri (vegetables). He was admitted in a state of collapse, and died ten
hours afterwards. The cholera cases were placed in an old tent on the Ganges bank. This
was disinfected with sulphurous anhydride, and the attendants kept in quarantine for ten days