STATEMENT No. 1.
STRENGTH.
Present.
Absent.
Total.
Regular Army . . . 38,778.5
5,823.5 44,602.
Central India Force . . .
4,209.8
1,451.6
5,661.4
Punjab Frontier Force . . .
9,885.8
2,340.8 12,226.6
TOTAL . . . 52,874.1
9,615.9
62,490.
Madras Army . . .
3,435.5
389.
3,824.5
GRAND TOTAL . . . 56,309.6
10,004.9
66,314.5
No. 1289.
FROM
THE SURGEON-GENERAL, INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE,
To
THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,
MILITARY DEPARTMENT.
Fort William, the 14th January 1876.
SIR,
I have the honor to forward, for submission to the Right Hon'ble
the Governor General in Council, the Medical and Sanitary Report of the
Native Army of Bengal for the year 1874. This report has been compiled
partly by Surgeon-Major J. Browne, M.D., and partly by Surgeon K. McLeod,
M.D.,—by the former while officiating as Secretary, and by the latter on
resuming his duties from detached civil employment in the Calcutta Medical
College. In accordance with the orders of Government, an endeavour has
been made to abbreviate and condense the report as much as possible ; but, as long
as the present system of preparing an abstract of the report of each regimental
officer is pursued, it is obvious that greater condensation than has now been
attempted cannot easily be achieved. I do not recommend a change of system ;
for I consider it a matter of importance that the health and sanitation of each
regiment should be separately represented : otherwise the specialities of the
sanitary circumstances of each corps are lost sight of, no opportunity is afforded
for representing the effects of varying hygienic conditions on the health of
individual communities, and the material for sanitary histories and retrospects
of regiments, which are both interesting and useful, are either not available at
all, or only to be gleaned with difficulty. Besides, one of the most important
uses of a report of this sort, namely, to enable medical officers to compare the
health of their own with that of other regiments, and the circumstances affecting
it, would be impossible were condensation carried much further than it has
been, or the plan of the report changed, so that it should only represent the
native army as a mass. I shall endeavour, as heretofore, to place all general
considerations affecting the health of the native army before Government in
this letter, leaving the more detailed records of regiments to speak for them
-selves.
Abbreviation
and conden
- s a t i o n .
Reasons for
deprecating a
change in the
plan of the
report.
. Compilers of
the report.
2. The strength of the native troops employed in the Bengal Presidency in
1874 has undergone very
little change as compared
with the few preceding years.
Statement No. I is an accu-
rate representation of the
strength of the various sec
-tions of the native army,
showing the numbers fur-
nishing admissions to hos-
-pital, and those beyond the
range of medical aid. The
column of "absent" is main-
-ly composed of men on fur--
lough and sick leave. It
also includes a few small
detachments and parties not under medical supervision, and which for the purpose
of accurate vital statistics have been enumerated among the "absent." These
absentees amounted to about 15 per cent. of the total strength, against rather
less than 14 per cent. in 1873.
Strength of
the native
army.
"Absent"
strength.