126
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
Recommend
-ations.
Inspection.
Location.
Meteorology.
Relation to
disease.
Measures
adopted to
prevent over
-
crowding.
Sanitary im
-
provements.
Conservancy.
XVIII. Recommendations.— All the recommendations made by my predecessor and detail
-
ed by him in his Annual Report of 1873 were repeated by me, and strictly carried out by the
commanding officer, who always looks after the health and comfort of the men under his
command.
Deputy Surgeon-General, G. H. Ray, M. D., in his inspection report dated
17th July 1875, states that the lines are apt to be overcrowded owing to the prac
-
tice prevailing in this regiment of men having their families with them. The
latrine accommodation is said to be insufficient, and, owing to temporary
causes, they were not in good order on the day of inspection. The hospital
is too small for a station like Mooltan, where fever is prone to cause such a
large sick list at times. Accommodation for medical subordinates is greatly
needed ; steps have been taken to provide this. Firewood has now been sanc
-
tioned for the cold months, and fire-places are about to be built. The regula
-
tion bath-room is said to be never used ; the men presented a generally healthy
appearance, notwithstanding that they had suffered so much from malarious
fever.
31st (Punjab) Regiment Aatibe Infantry—Mooltan.
Surgeon-Major T. G. Skardon, in a very careful and interesting report,
states that the regiment
remained at Mooltan
throughout the year. The
meteorological peculiari
-
ties of the year were a
somewhat lower tempera
-
ture, and unusually high
rainfall. It was during the
months in which the range
of temperature was least
that the most cases of
fever were admitted; when
the range increased, dy
-
senteric complications and
internal congestions ap
-
peared.
To prevent overcrowding in close huts the regimental tents were pitched,
and the men encouraged to sleep in them. This was done from the second
week of August till the end of September. Sleeping in the open air is
not attended with the same risks in the dry climate of Mooltan as in the
Lower Provinces.
Some of the hollow ground in cantonments to the north-east of the cavalry lines has
been levelled and two bungalows built thereon, consequently much of the Sirkara grass has
been removed. Dhobies, &c., have not been allowed to wash in the water of the larger exca
-
vation, and I believe a proposal to build a bungalow on its site has been accepted by the canton
-
ment committee. The ponds to east and north of the Native Infantry lines were again filled this
year with rain and with muddy canal water, and again this year the water channels in the
midst of the lines were kept "dry" (not irrigated as in 1872).
VII. Conservancy.— The trench system of conservancy (dry earth) has been carried out as
in previous years, but modified by the men using a circular latrine built of sun-burnt bricks situ
-
ated to north-west of regimental lines, instead of portable screens which were formerly placed
over the trenches dug for receiving the manure to the east side of the lines, and close to the road
along which funerals passed to the burial ground, This, therefore, was not a good position for
the latrines ; moreover, the portable screens were continually being damaged by the frequent dust
storms. The manure is now carried by the sweepers to a short distance and buried in trenches
cut in an open piece of ground which will hereafter be capable of irrigation from the canal water
which annually fills the pond to the north of the lines. This site for cultivation (future) is
in rear of the present regimental bazar, and in a north-western direction from the lines, and
to the right of a pathway leading to the circular latrine in present use. Some empty large
manure-pits used by a former regiment near this latrine have been filled up with earth during
the past year before the rainy season commenced by cantonment authorities on my recommenda
-
tion, and ground in the vicinity improved.
YEAR.
STATION.
PER CENT OF STRENGTH.
Admissions. Deaths. Daily sick.
1869 . . . Nowshera, November
1868 from, Umballa.
144.6
.8
3.6
1870 . . .
Ditto ditto . . .
237.
2.3
5.8
1871 . . . Mooltan, October 1871.
118.5
1.4
3.6
1872 . . .
Ditto ditto . . .
223.2
.4
7.4
1873 . . .
Ditto ditto . . .
152.2
1.7
4.7
Average . . .
. . .
175.1
1.3
5.
1874 . . . Mooltan . . .
198.4
.86
5.1