4
shall not be far out in representing the money loss to Government in two years from
this disease in British Burma at Rs. 30,000 ; and if, as is possible, the losses in
elephants (so numerous lately) are also due to relapsing fever, a considerable addition
must be made on that account to the above specified amount. We may here give
a table showing the losses probably from relapsing fever of Government transport
mules in 1884-85 :—
Station.
Rangoon .. {
Tonghoo .. {
Others
Total ..
Corps, &c.
Transport Supply Depot
2nd Battalion, Somersetshire Light Infantry ..
5th Madras Native Infantry
Queen's Own Sappers and Miners .. .. ..
Eropian Infantry .. .. .. .. ..
Native Infantry
..
..
..
..
..
Royal Artillery
Various
..
..
..
..
..
British Burma .. .. .. .. ..
Mules.
2 + 3
52 + 6
..
..
50 + 8
54 + 7
..
..
182
Remarks.
Inclusive of experimental mules, &c.
6. The influence of this disease on the readiness of the British Burma troops
for field service is self-evident. In the current year the fatalities at Tonghoo have
been above 50 per cent. on the total strength of mules of the two infantry regiments,
and at Rangoon the British Infantry regiment has lost one quarter of its mules.
But, unsatisfactory as this present state of affairs is, it is not the only serious feature
of prevalence of the disorder as concerns active operations. It is almost certain
that, if the mule transport were now called on for service in the field, few animals
would survive the first campaign. This view is based on the notoriously unhealthy
character of the climate of British Burma, especially to animals of the horse tribe
(the Burman pony being the one least liable to disorder). We have history also to
support the opinion, as the following extracts from the Report of the Commission on
Indian Cattle Plagues, 1871, show : " Mr. J. Grierson writes in the 'Transactions of the
Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta' (vol. II, 1826,) that in Arracan in July
1825, during the first Anglo-Burman war, ' cattle had begun to be in the same deplo-
rable state (as the men); the camels, with the exception of one or two miserable
skeletons still retaining life, had all perished; horses, elephants, and bullocks daily
diminished in number.' Mr. R. V. Burnard writes on the same subject in vol. III of
the same Transactions, page 84. He describes the fever which proved so fatal among
European and Native troops employed in Arracan from June to November 1825.
' The climate of Arracan appears to be equally hostile to cattle ; elephants (from Bengal
and Hindustan), horses, sheep, and bullocks died in great numbers * * * . Professor
Coleman says that the horse is not the subject of fever, i.e., of a regular succession of
cold, hot, and sweating stages. In Arracan it certainly was, and it was a disease of
great fatality; the mode in which it terminated was usually effusion in the chest.'
Mr. W. Stevenson writes, ' * * * Bruce further observes " no horse, mule, or any
beast of burden will breed or even live at Sennar or many miles around it; poultry
do not live there ; neither dog nor cat, sheep nor bullock can be preserved a season
there. They must all go every half-year to the sand. Though all possible care may be
taken of them, they die in every place when the fat earth is about the town during
the first season of the rains." ' Such in some degree was the case in Arracan.
Bullocks died in great numbers, and horses and elephants shared the same fate."
Here we have distinct evidence of fever, emaciation, great fatality, dropsy of the
chest, outbreak during the first season of the rains, among horses, mules, and other
animals. It is impossible to say exactly what the " fever " was; in those days the
medical uses of the microscope and thermometer were unknown ; so there must
always be an element of uncertainty as to whether the fever was anthrax or surra,
the balance of argument being in favor of the latter. It is well known that the
large number of fatal cases occurring among the artillery horses in Burma is one of
the principal causes of the field batteries having been withdrawn from that province,
so it would be of great interest if we could, by overhauling old veterinary records of
the batteries which were stationed in Burma, learn what were the symptoms and
post-mortem appearances of the prevailing disorder, which was diagnosed as Kamri,
or, in other words, was an obscure disease associated with loss of power in the loins,