Hospital.
Bath-room.
Quarters for
medical
subordinates.
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
Venereal
diseases.
Chest com
-plaints.
Deaths.
Epidemics.
109
ROHILCUND DISTRICT.
The hospital has been kept in good repair, and has room for 26 patients,
but there has not been that number of sick since Surgeon Galloway has had
charge of the regiment. A portion of the verandah to the south has been
walled in for a bath-room, which is commodious and airy, and during the year
under review was a great convenience to the sick, who used it freely. The
quarters for the hospital assistant and native medical pupil are not very good.
The dry-earth system of conservancy is carried out in the hospital.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding.—The following table shows the sickness, mor
-tality and invaliding for the year. Strength,— present 559.3; absent 234.7; total 794.
STATION.
PERIOD.
Strength.
TOTAL NUM-
BER 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.
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 Quarter R. W. at
Moradadad . . . 1st Jan. 1874 31st Dec. 1874 365.41
283
. . .
9.54 77.44
. . .
2.61
Left wing at Shahjahanpur
Ditto
Ditto
175.84
216
. . .
8.80 122.8
. . .
5.
Detachment with His
Honor the Lieutenant
Governor . . . 1st Jan. 1874 6th Feb. 1874
176
7
. . .
2.
39.8
. . .
1.13
TOTAL . . .
559.3
506
. . .
20.34 90.47
. . .
3.64
Number of deaths in hospitals Nil; out of hospital, 2; total, 2; per cent.; of total strength . . . 0.25
" invalided, 21; per cent. of total strength . . . 2.64
" sent on sick leave, 15; per cent. of total strength . . . 1.89
" of days spent in hospital, 3,485; per admission, 6.8; per man of total strength . . . 4.39
" " " spent on sick leave, 2,457; per man, 163.8; per man of total strength . . . 3.10
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . . 7.49
Surgeon Galloway remarks that his daily average number of sick in
hospital was considerably increased by the long period one or two men, who
had not passed the invaliding committee, remained in hospital.
Intermittent fever as usual caused the largest number of admissions, but it was of a
very mild form, and, while more than a third of the total admissions were from this cause, it
only formed about 19 per cent. of the daily average number of sick. Dysentery and diarrhœa,
which only give 15 per cent. of the admissions, form a little over 29 per cent. of the daily average
number of sick. Some of the cases of dysentery were very severe and of a hæmorrhagic form;
they prevailed most in August and September, and appeared to be caused by the damp and
occasionally cold weather, and also partly by the men eating their food improperly cooked.
Ulcers, abscesses and boils give nearly 16 per cent. of the admissions, and 20 per cent. of the
daily average sick; the ulcers were mostly on the feet, and caused chiefly by badly fitting boots,
and, occasionally, by accidental kicks from the feet of other sepoys while marching in the
ranks.
In a very few of the cases there was a scorbutic tendency, and a general depraved state of
health.
Prevailing
diseases.
Scurvy.
Venereal affections give 7.7 per cent. of the total admissions and 10 per cent. of the daily
average number of such.
In bronchitis, pleurisy and pneumonia, which give 4.7 per cent. of the total admissions
and 6 per cent. of the daily average number of sick, there has been a previous history of a slight
attack of fever, for which the sufferer, it being so slight, did not come to hospital. It is more
than probable that exposure to cold in the hot stage was the cause of the diseases in most of
the cases. A majority of the cases were young recruits insufficiently supplied with bedding and
under-clothing until they came to hospital.
Amongst the other complaints may be noticed 4 cases of arsenical poisoning. The poison
was sent by one sepoy to another in some sweetmeats, which the latter, luckily for himself, divid
-ed with three others. They were all seized with symptoms of poisoning about the same time,
but the dose, from having been divided, was probably insufficient to destroy life, and they all re
-covered. The would-be poisoner got 10 years' penal servitude.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.— Only two deaths occurred during the year, both
out of hospital.
XVIII. Epidemics.—No epidemic disease has prevailed during the year either in can
-tonments or neighbourhood.
Cases of
arsenical poi
-soning.
D 1