Epidemics.
Vaccination.
Malarious
disease.
Bowel com
-
plaints.
98
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
The table given below shows the principal diseases which have occasioned admissions into
hospital, and a comparison can be drawn between the years 1872, 1873 and 1874.
ADMISSIONS DURING
THE YEARS
A g u e .
R h e u m a t i c a f f e c t i o n s .
S y p h i l i t i c a f f e c t i o n s .
C o n j u n c t i v i t i s .
D y s e n t e r y .
D i a r r h œ a .
S p l e n i t i s .
U l c e r s .
C o n t u s i o n s .
B l i s t e r s o f t h e f e e t .
C h o l e r a .
H e p a t i t i s .
1872 . . .
310
28
28
34
56
45
50
12
38
39
8
12
1873 . . .
172
40
8
42
18
11
29
11
29
71
. . .
11
1874 . . .
130
39
13
52
11
9
38
15
7
33
. . .
8
Malarious disease as usual furnishes the greatest number of admissions. In 1872 the
regiment returned from service in Looshai, and the effect of such service on the health of the
men is shown by 360 admissions from ague and splenitis. An improvement in this respect is
apparent in 1873, when 201 cases were treated, and a still greater improvement during the yeas
under report, as only 169 admissions from this cause took place.
Dysentery and diarrhœa were common in 1872, giving 101 admissions. The former diseasr
was common whilst the regiment was in the field, and a rapid increase in the number of casee
of diarrhœa took place during the cholera epidemic of the same year. No such causes prevailed
during the two succeeding years, and these diseases declined in 1873 to a total of 29, and in
1874 to 20.
Blisters of the
feet.
Deaths.
Phthisis
pulmonalis.
Tiger-bite.
There is an increase in the number of blisters of the feet in 1873 as compared with 1874;
these occurred chiefly on the march to, and at the camp of exercise at, Roorkee.
I think the regiment may now be fairly said to have regained its health, which was tried
in 1871-72.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.— During the year under report, ten deaths have
occurred in the regiment. Six of these happened in the regimental hospital at head-quarters.
One casualty took place on furlough. Two deaths occurred in patients on sick leave. One
native officer died at his home who had passed the annual invaliding committee for pension;
total 10.
Phthisis pulmonalis was the cause of three of these casualties. This disease is common
amongst the Goorkhas and inhabitants of the outer ranges of the Himalayas generally, as I
have frequently stated.
One death in hospital arose from abscess of the liver.
The casualty from tiger-bite arose from the severe injury to the ribs and right lung; one
tooth had also penetrated the liver. This rifleman was out shooting, and was suddenly, without
any warning of his approach, seized by the tiger as he was passing through some high grass;
he was carried for some distance by the tiger, which then dropped him, and made off. The man
struggled for several miles to the nearest village, and from thence was conveyed to hospital.
One of the casualties which occurred out of hospital arose from the rifleman being
accidentally shot by his comrade in thick jungle. The ball penetrated the forehead. The other
casualty out of hospital was from phthisis pulmonalis; the patient had been long ill and was
gradually wasting away. He was sent to the hills to escape the debilitating effects of the hot
season, and died whilst on leave on medical certificate. The mortality has been less during the
year under report than during the two preceding years.
XVIII. Epidemics.— Happily no epidemic has taken place during the year.
XIX. Vaccination.— One hundred and fifty-six vaccine operations have been performed
during the year, and the work will go on steadily to the end of the cold season of 1874-75;
53 of these operations were on recruits and men of the regiment, the remainder amongst the
women and children; 150 were successful. The regiment has remained singularly free from
small-pox for several years. In December, two cases occurred of very mild type in men who
had been previously vaccinated, both did well; one case also occurred at the same time in a child
who had also been vaccinated. This case was also very mild, only some seven or eight
pustules forming.
The lines were at once searched, but no other cases could be found, nor have any others
since occurred.
Inspection.
This shows how very important it is to commence vaccinating the unprotected as early in
the season as possible. The usual sanitary precautions were observed in the huts from which
these cases were taken, as respects fumigating, "leeping," &c., &c.