Hospital.
Bath rooms.
29
ALLAHABAD DIVISION.
XIV. Hospital.—The hospital I have often described before. It is in first rate repair,
and with the very little sickness in the regiment, was, I need hardly say, never overcrowded : the
bedding I have remarked on before.
Since last year two bath-rooms (one at either end) have been fitted up, and are very ser
-
viceable ; they would be much more so but for one defect, and that is that no wood is allowed
to heat the water for warm baths. Another matter I would beg to notice, and one that very
seriously affects the comfort of the patients, viz., no wood being allowed to heat bug-boilers.
At certain times of the year the beds simply swarm with bugs, and, were the officers not good
enough to come forward there again, many a sick man would pass a restless night to whom a
sound sleep means everything. I have tried for the wood, and am informed it is not allowed
for native troops.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding.— Strength of the Regiment—present 584.02 ;
absent 113.24 ; total 697.26.
Sickness,
mortality, and
invaliding.
PERIOD.
S t r e n g t h .
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
D a i l y a v e r a g e s i c k .
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
From
To
A d m i s s i o n .
D e a t h s .
A d m i s s i o n s .
D e a t h s .
D a i l y a v e r a g e s i c k .
Head-quarters at Cawnpore . . . 1st Jany. 31st Dec.
548.02
269
3 11.68
49.08
53
2.13
Detachments at Mozuffurpore . . . 27th March 4th July
124
23
1
5.26
68.27
2.96
4.24
TOTAL . . .
584.02
292
4 13.4
49.99
.68
2.30
Number of deaths in hospital, 4; out of hospital, 1; total, 5; per cent. of total strength . . . .71
"
i n v a l i d e d , 3 5 ; p e r
c e n t . o f
t o t a l s t r e n g t h
. . .
5 . 0 1
" sent on sick leave, 10; per cent. of total strength . . . 1.43
" of days spent in hospital, 4,925 ; per admission, 16.86 ; per man of total strength . . . 7.06
" of days on sick leave, 1,582 ; per man, 158.2 ; per man of total strength. . . 2.26
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . . 9.32
The foregoing table speaks for itself. In no former year that I can trace has the regi
-
ment been so healthy, nor do I think that it will be so for many years to come. In the ordi
-
nary course of events one can hardly hope again for a death rate of a very little over 7 per
1,000.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— This is rather a difficult paragraph to write, as I don't
consider we had any principal cause of sickness.
The principal admissions were ague 113, primary syphilis 18, conjunctivitis 14, dysentery
11, diarrhœa 9, abscess 28, ulcer 17, and general debility 14. These call for little remark,
none of them were beyond the ordinary run of disease, and there was not a death from any
of them. Amongst the ague cases some of them (a few) were very severe indeed, and
tasked my powers to the utmost to relieve them. In some of the cases I found that a
very slight breeze, from being too close to a door brought on the attack ; those I changed
into one of the small rooms at either end of the hospital, where they very often did well ;
in others I found changing a man's bed. from one side of the building to the other often
put him on the way to recovery when, medicine formerly bad little effect. In ordinary
cases of fever have stopped giving enormous doses of quinine, as I am convinced it
does not and will not cut short the disease. I use it when the patient is recovering simply
as a tonic. The cases of conjunctivitis are, as a rule, interesting from the fact that a
number appear simultaneously. I cannot even conjecture why it should be so, as at the time
such cases make their appearance there is nothing in the condition of the weather in the very
least abnormal.
XVII. Causes of mortality.—Pneumonia 1, remittent fever 1, cholera 1, paraplegia 1,
and—out of hospital—hæmoptysis 1. None of these call for any very special comment ; the
pneumonia case really died from a clot in the heart.
Principal
causes of
sickness.
Ague.
Use of
quinine.
Causes of
mortality.
Epidemics.
Vaccination.
XVIII. Epidemics.—None.
XIX. Vaccination.— I had 106 men vaccinated during the year, 82 being successful
and 24 failures. I also had every unprotected person in the married quarters, bazars, &c.
done ; the regiment is absolutely protected from small-pox, that is, as far as vaccination can
do it.
XX. Recommendations—Recommendations were very frequently made verbally to the com
-
manding officer on any matters connected with the welfare of the regiment, and in every
case at once carried out.
Recommenda
-
tions.
XXI. Special observations and remarks.—At the end of a healthy year, with no epidemics
and with the men virtually at their homes, it might be expected that a very high state of
Special obser
-
vations and
remarks.