142
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
Clothing.
Duty and
employment.
Exercise,
amusements,
and occupa-
tions.
Hospital.
Sickness,
mortality, and
invaliding.
X. Clothing as formerly described. The short tunic does not afford sufficient protec-
tion to the loins and hips. During the year the wearing of English pattern boots has been
abolished, and native shoes only are now worn, the result being that the number of cases of
blistered feet in 1877 was 9, as against 43 of 1876.
XI. Duty and employment have not been unusual or excessive. Number of nights in
bed for the year has averaged 11.20.
XII. Exercise, amusements, and occupations.—Athletic exercises are much practised; garden-
ing is only slightly affected. Drill and musketry practice now occupy the men's time so much
that they have little leisure for sports of any kind.
XIV. Hospital is on the standard plan; the repairs were completed in the early months
of the year. Hospital assistants' quarters completed and occupied; zenana compounds, recently
sanctioned by Government, are about to be erected. There has been no over-crowding, or any
evidence of insalubrity. Fires have been in use during the early and latter months of the
year. The enlarged allowance of lamps, chicks and purdahs has been most gratefully
received. All the additional articles sanctioned under G. G. O. No. 681 of 1877 have
either been received or indented for. Blankets, as sanctioned by G. O. C. C. 22 of 8th February
1877, were received and have proved of the greatest benefit to the sick.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding. —Strength of the regiment—
Present
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 622.97
Absent
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
84.99
Total
.
. 707.96
STATION.
PERIOD.
Strength.
TOTAL NUMBER
OF
Daily
average
number
of sick.
PEE CENT. OF STRENGTH
PER ANNUM.
Admis -
sions.
Deaths.
Adi mis-
s i o n s . Deaths.
Daily
average
sick.
From
To
Sialkot .
.
.
.
.
1st Jan. 1877 31st Dec. 1877 622 .97
335
2
9.62 53.77
.32
1.54
Number of deaths in hospital, 2; out of hospital, 0; total
2 ; per cent. of total strength .
.
.28
„
invalided
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
27 ;
„ „
3.81
„
sent on sick leavo
.
2 ;
„
„
.28
„
of days spent in hospital, 3,525 ; per admission . 10.52; per man of total strength .
.
4.97
„ „
on sick leave, 122; per man .
.
61 ;
„ „
0.17
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength
.
5.14
Principal
causes of sick-
ness.
Causes of
mortality.
Epidemics.
Vaccination.
Special observ
ations.
On the whole, the sick rate of 1877 was less than half that of 1876, the difference being
observed chiefly in malarious fevers, dysentery, diarrhœa, ophthalmia and blisters of the feet.
The total temporary loss of service due to sickness in 1876 was 11 days per man, in 1877
5 . 14 days per man.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— 1, Malarious fevers and their sequelæ. Of these, 22.95
per cent. of strength were admitted, as against 63 . 14 per cent. in 1876, and 42.52 per cent.
average of the preceding five years. 2, Respiratory diseases; 4 . 17 per cent. admitted in 1877,
against 4.64 in 1876, and 5.91 average of preceding five years. 3, Dysentery and diarrhœa;
2 . 24 per cent. admitted in 1877, against 7.21 per cent. in 1876, and 11 . 13 per cent. average of
preceding five years. These results are doubtless due to the nature of the season as described
in paragraph IV.
XVII. Causes of mortality.— One death occurred from empyema. The patient, an old
n a t i v e o f f i c e r , h a d s u f f e r e d l o n g f r o m i n t e r mi t t e n t f e v e r , wh i c h wa s f o l l o we d b y a s u b - a c u t e
pleurisy which ended in suppuration. The only other death occurred from opium poisoning,
believed to have been suicidal, or the result of an overdose taken by the man himself. As
the case of empyema really originated in an ague beginning in the autumn of 1876, it may
truly be said that no case of sickness admitted in 1877 terminated fatally.
XVIII. Ep i d e m i c s .
— N o n e
o c c u r r e d t h i s y e a r .
X1X. Vaccination,.—All recruits were inspected; 8 were found without evidence of small-
pox or vaccination, and were vaccinated; 6 of them successfully. All the children in the lines
were also vaccinated. No small-pox occurred.
XXI. Special observations.—The recruits have been of a good stamp. The regiment is
popular among the high class Sikhs, and there is abundant choice of young men for enlistment.