Deaths.
Epidemics.
Vaccination.
SAUGOR DISTRICT. 49
XIV. Hospital.— The sick are now accommodated in a small bungalow and in four wards
of a large barrack in close proximity thereto ; these two buildings together form the hospital.
The accommodation is ample, and the only objection to the arrangement is the distance from
the lines—between 400 and 500 yards—which, for out-patients especially, is inconvenient in the
very hot and rainy seasons. The hospital area has been extended so as to embrace two cook-rooms
and two additional servants houses; three new houses for servants nave peen punt; a new store
room, and accommodation has been fitted up for one hospital assistant. A bath-room with
all the appliances, according to the orders of Government, has been finished, a new hospital,
latrine built, and jamps for the hospital verandah supplied. The hospital is now complete.
In October last the composition of the regiment was changed from the general-mixture to the
class-troop system. After this change was brought about, and it became practicable to do so,
the commanding officer, on my recommendation, sanctioned, as a private regimental arrang-
ment, the employment of two hospital cooks—a Brahmin ana a Mahomedan. In my report of
1869, page 127, and again in 1872, at page 82, I drew attention to the faulty working of
the hospitals of native cavalry regiments, and I pointed out how the faulty system arose.
It comes simply to this, that the hospital establishment requires revision, and the subject
assuredly demands imperial consideration, for the day has passed when there was no
hospital, no shelter for stores or sick, either in the field or quarters, and when, in truth, the
sick were scattered all over the lines. The only remnant of the old irregular cavalry system
which remains to the present day is the hospital establishment ; it, and it alone, still stands in
all its faulty integrity unchanged. The welfare of the sick should not depend upon private
arrangements, and the hospital establishment should be able to meet the exigencies of the
field as well as the garrison.
XV. Sickness, mortality, and invaliding.— Strength of the regiment—present 368.176 ;
absent 78.729; total 446.905.
Hospital.
Additions.
Necessity of
revision of
hospital es
-
tablishment
For cavalry
corps.
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
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 AN
-
NUM .
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 n u m b e r s i c k .
Head quarters at Nowgong, 1st January 31st Decem- 274.26
301
. . .
8.378 109.74
. . .
2.91
2 squadrons.
1874.
ber 1874.
Detachment at Nagode, 1
squadron.
Ditto . . .
Ditto . . .
93.90
117
. . .
5.312 124.59
. . .
5.32
368.17
418
. . .
13.69 113.51
. . .
3.53
Number of deaths in hospital,
Nil ; out of hospital, 4; total, 4; per cent of total strength 0.89
" invalided, . . .
48 ; . . . " " . . . 10.74
" sent on sick leave, . . . 2 ; . . . " " . . .
0.44
" days spent in hospital, 4,997 ; per admission, 11.954 , per man of " . . . 11.18
" " o n s i c k l e a v e , 2 7 9 ; p e r m a n , 1 3 9 . 5 ; " " " . . .
0.62
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength . . .
11.80
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— The health of the regiment during the past year has
been remarkably good, especially at Nowgong. At Nowgong the daily average sick per cent
of strength being 2.91, at Nagode 5.32, showing a mean of 3.53; the principal causes of disease,
being simple ague and accidents.
• XVII. Causes of mortality.— There has been no death at head-quarters, nor with th
detachment, but four men died at their homes,—cause unknown.
XVIII.— No Epidemic.
XIX. Vaccination.—None.
XX. Recommendations.— Such as I have made from time to time,—of clothing, drainage,
cooks for hospital &c., have all been cordially met.
Prevailing
diseases.
History of
the corps.
Composition
of the regi
-
ment.
Surgeon-Major Clarke gives a very interesting historical sketch of the
regiment, which dates its origin from the 6th December 1814, when it w
a s k n o
known as 2nd Skinner's Local Horse, and this, its original name, it retained
until 1834, when it became the 4th Irregular Cavalry, but in 1861 it was again
re-formed and became, as it now remains, the 3rd Bengal Cavalry. The regi
-
ment is now composed of 3 troops of Hindoostanee Mahomedans, 1 Troop
of Hurrianah Raipoots ; 1 of J ā ts, and 1 of Sikhs—in all 457 sabres.
Recruits—Sixty-seven recruits have been entertained during the past year, viz.
37 Mahomedans (of these, 22 are Ranghurs).
21 Jā ts .
6 Rajpoots, "Harrianah."
2 Sikhs.
Recruits.
N