58
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
"Line sick"
Sickness mor
-tality and
invaliding.
Surgeon Edis calculates that the present hospital is capable of accommo
-dating 8 men at 100 superficial and 1,500 cubic feet per man, or about 2
per cent. of the strength of the regiment. This accommodation would be quite
insufficient but for the practice prevailing in cavalry regiments of dividing the
sick into "sick in hospital" and "line sick." The latter are allowed to live in
their huts and excused more or less duty according to the gravity of their
indisposition: they have not hitherto been included in returns, but the medi
-cal officer will in future include all men unfit from sickness to perform all
their duties, whether they are in hospital or in the lines.
XV.—Sickness, mortality, and invaliding .—Strength of regiment—present, 299.63; absent,
190.54; total, 490.17.
1874.
PERIOD.
Strength.
TOTAL
NUMBER OF
D a i l y a v e r a g e n u m b e r o f s i c k .
PER CENT. OF
STRENGTH PER
ANNUM OF
From
To
Admis-
sions.
D e a t h s .
Admis-
sions.
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 Goonah . . . 31st Jan . . . 31st Dec . . . 216.10
54
2
3.85 25.
.92
1.78
Detachment at Sehore . . .
Ditto . . .
Ditto . . .
32.9
5
. . .
.07 15.1
. . .
.21
Detachment at Tehree . . .
Ditto . . .
Ditto . . .
48.4
19
. . .
.47 39.2
. . .
1.38
Detachment on escort duty
with A. G. G. C. I.
14th Dec . . .
Ditto . . .
44.8
2
. . .
. 8 3 90.
. . .
1.8
Total . . .
. . .
. . . 299.63
80
2
4.65
26.69
.66 1.55
Invalids.
Number of deaths in hospital, 2; out of hospital, none; total, 2; per cent of total strength . . .
.40
" invalided, 24; " " " . . .
4.8
" sent on sick leave, 4; " " " . . .
.81
" o f d a y s s p e n t i n h o s p i t a l , 1 , 6 9 8 ; p e r a d m i s s i o n , 2 1 . 2 ; p e r m a n " " . . .
3.4
" " on sick leave, 882; per man 220.5; " " " . . .
1.7
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . .
5.1
Number of days spent in hospital as "line sick," 2,573; per admission 7.8; per man of total
strength . . .
5.2
True total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . . 10.3
Twenty-four men were invalided during the year; many of them because, from age or other
reasons, they had lost their nerve, and were no longer efficient cavalry soldiers.
I consider that the regiment has been healthier during the year 1874 than in any of the
preceding six years.
Sickness
contrasted
with previous
years.
Prevalent
diseases,
Fever.
Rheumatism
Guinea worm.
In the year under report, a total of 405 men only have applied for medical aid. Seventy
nine of these were entered as "in hospital" and 326 as "line sick."
These figures contrast most favourably with those for the years 1868-69 and 1870 hnew
the, regiment was last on this station. The year 1869 must have been a particularly unhealthy
one, as in that year there were 1,236 men treated in and out of hospital, and the daily average
o f s i c k w a s 3 3 .
XVI .— Principal causes of sickness.—Of the 54 patients treated in hospital at head
-quarters during the year, general diseases were the cause of 30 admissions, local diseases of
14, classes III and IV of 3, and injuries of 7.
Of the general diseases, 26 were in sub-division A and four in sub-division B.
Of the 26 in sub-division A, 23 were cases of quotidian fever, none very severe, and
all yielding more or less rapidly to treatment. Quinine, administered by subcutaneous injections,
was frequently tried. In one case sloughing of the skin and cellular tissue at the spot where
injected followed, and the man had to be detained in hospital long after his fever was cured
until the ulcers were healed. The cases of rheumatism were all very obstinate, and two still
remain in hospital. There, were three admissions into hospital during the year with guinea
worm. In one man, a recruit, who joined only in April, three worms made their exit, two giving
no trouble, but the third got broken, and low inflammation of the leg followed, and the man
was eighty-one days in hospital. The man came from the Punjab, and stated that the disease
was very common in his zillah during the rains. The other men probably contracted the
disease during the time the regiment was at Augur, as it is not a common complaint in any
part of this district.