Water.
Diet.
Clothing.
Duties.
Rheumatism.
Chest diseases.
Bowel com
-
plaints.
LAHORE DIVISION.
127
The arrangements for the supply of water are the same as before, and no
change has occurred as regards diet. Many of the men use bhang, and some
do not consume a sufficiently nourishing diet ; the men's undress elothing is
also said to be often insufficient, and Mr. Skardon thinks that a lightly fitting
woollen garment habitually worn would be very beneficial.
Duties have been light, the average number of nights in bed being—for
havildars 24.75, naiks 6.64 and sepoys 8.68.
The hospital has been divided into a larger and smaller ward by a cross
wall ; the latter has been furnished with a purdah for each entrance. Fire
-
places are about to be erected; a dead house and quarters for hospital assis
-
tants are much wanted. One of the corner rooms has been appropriated and fur
-
nished as a bath-room. Mr. Skardon objects to this arrangement (1) because
it tends to cause in the hospital a moist unhealthy atmosphere ; (2) many of the
men will not use it ; (3) the room is required for other purposes ; (4) the
establishment of bhesties is inadequate ; and (5) the fuel authorised is insuffi
-
cient for heating the large quantity of water required for the hot bath. He
prefers a platform near a well in the open air for general bathing purposes.
Tents were required for a few weeks, when the fever was rife, in addition to the
hospital.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding.— Average strength of regiment— present, 615.37;
absent, 79.48; total, 694.85.
Hospita
Bath-room.
Sickness, mor
-
tality, and
invaliding.
STATION.
PERIOD.
S t r e n g t h .
TOTAL NUM -
BER OF
D a i l y a v e r a g e n u m b e r o f s i c k .
PER CENT OF
STRENGTH PER AN -
NUM.
From
To
Admis-
sions.
D e a t h s .
Admis-
sions.
D e a t h s .
Dai l y aver age si ck.
Head-Quarters at Mooltan 1st Jan. 1874 31st Dec. 1874 615.37
1.221
4
31.90 119.41 .65
5.18
Number of deaths in hospital, 4 ; out of hospital, 2; total, 6 ; per cent of total strength . . .
.86
" invalided, . . . 15 ;
" " " . . .
3.16
" sent on sick leave, . . . 1; " " " . . .
.14
" of days spent in hospital, 11,644 ; per admission, 9.53 ; per man " . . .
16.76
" " " on sick leave, 94 ; per man 94 ; " " " . . .
.14
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . . 16.90
XVI. The principal causes of sickness.— The principal diseases of 1874 have been fever
of a distinctly intermittent type. The bulk of these have been again this year simple in
character, and not complicated with severe secondary affections. I am not changed in opinion
as to the cause (vide last report). In treating these cases Dr. William Brinton's principle of
giving an emetic early has again been almost invariably adopted with success. There have been
902 agues, and 7 cases ot remittent fever treated during 1874, as compared with 593 agues
and 8 remittent fevers in 1873, each year apparently bearing direct proportion to the amount of
rain which fell three or four weeks before the fever season set in; thus, as in 1873 there were
593 agues treated, with 8.05 inches of rain collected ; so in 1874 there were 902 agues treated
Prevalent
diseases.
Fever.
with 12.04 inches of rain collected. Twenty-nine cases of rheumatism were treated, most of
which I attribute to the absence of garments of some woollen material next the skin when in
undress clothing; 32 cases of disease of respiratory system treated very much depending on the
same cause; 35 cases of dysentery, and 12 cases of diarrhœa attributed to the same cause
—
injudicious feeding, chiefly at a time when the nights were chilly and days hot. Of 65 diseases
Skin diseases.
Debility and
injuries.
Blistered feet.
of cutaneous system, 20 were ulcers anu 27 were boils ; no case of the so-called Mooltan sore has
occurred; 25 cases of debility were treated ; 44 cases of accidental injury were treated, nearly
all trivial in character ; of these 16 only were from blisters of feet owing to my having adopted
the habit, during 1874, of recommending men coming to hospital with blistered feet from pres
-
sure of ammunition boots to be allowed to do all their duties with native shoes only for a
period of one week. Three cases of homicidal injuries were treated—1 wound of scalp, 1
punctured wound of abdomen by bayonet, and 1 wound of upper extremity. The very small
amount of venereal disease must be attributed to the good arrangements in force under lock
-
hospital regulations.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.— Four deaths have occurred in hospital during
1874, of which 1 was from phthisis, 2 were from pneumonia, 1 was from pleurisy combined with
fatty degeneration of the heart in an old sepoy. Two deaths occurred out of hospital at head
-
quarters, of which one was murdered in the lines by gunshot wound of the head (aperture of
Deaths.