Sketch of the medical history of the native army of Bombay, for the year 1876. : The regiments are placed as they stood in the army list of the 1st July 1876].

  • Bombay (Presidency). Military Department.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketch of the medical history of the native army of Bombay, for the year 1876. : The regiments are placed as they stood in the army list of the 1st July 1876]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    enlargement, and some in chronic diarrhoea, for which cases change of air was absolutely required. The cases of remittent fever, 21 in number, were of the ordinary nature met with in Gujarat; the 3 fatal cases were rapid in their course and termination. The usual treatment was adopted in these cases. The most troublesome case I have had to treat were those of dysen- tery and chronic diarrhoea. Dysentery frequently terminated in chronic diarrhoea, and the latter disease was a very frequent complication of ague. These cases, for the most part, required length- ened treatment. The plan on which these cases were treated was change of medicine, attention to diet, occasional counterirritants, and when these failed, change of air. The great difficulty in these cases is the diet. Very often the appetite is good, the patients will not attend to diet, and all treatment is useless. I have invariably, when I found a man getting weak, ordered him milk and arrack to be taken together, and advised them to eat rice and milk; but in most cases my advice was not followed, and the result of treatment was in consequence unsatisfactory. However, notwithstanding the prevalance and obstinacy of these complaints, I am happy to say, there were no deaths. Of the admissions from other causes I need say but little. The chest affections for the most part were not of a severe nature, and the rheumatic and ulcer cases were such as are usually met with. Thirty men were invalided—7 from rheumatism, 1 from Invaliding. ucler, 22 old age, and debility ; 28 were discharged on pension, and 2 on gratuity. 14. The principal causes of sickness have been those of a local and endemic nature, with . . the exception of cholera, which occurred in an epidemic form, Principal causes o sic -ness. duties in Surat beiog remarkably'- light. 15. Exclusive of cholera there have been 9 deaths in hospital, 3 of these being from remittent fever, the fever of Gujarat. There have been no extra- principal causes o moita i y. ordinary causes of death ; at the same time I am under the im- pression that, since the regiment has been in Surat, there has been an increased consumption of spirituous drink. Toddy is plentiful and cheap, and drinking is now-a-days the rule, not as it used to be the exception, in the Native Army. I cannot conceive a worse liquor than bad toddy; and, as a natural consequence, a man who drinks cannot, out of his small pay, find himself in sufficient food. That this state of thing exists I am convinced, and it is one over which there is no control. When the regiment first arrived at Surat there wis a good deal of diarrhoea amongst the men, caused, I believe, by the change of water ; but having been cautioned not to drink the water much impregnated with saline matter, this soon subsided. 16. The following table shows the mortality foi the year, Mortality according to race. rs ratj0 to strength according to caste as compared to last year : Christians. Europeans. Natives. Strength. Ratio of deaths to Strength per cent. Strength. Ratio of deaths to strength yer • cent. 1875 ... 7 10 1876 ... 6 6 ••• Hindus. Mussalmans. Jews. Total. Strength. Ratio of deaths to strength per cent. j Strength. Ratio of deaths to strength per cent. Strength. Ratio of deaths to strength per cent. Strength. Ratio of deaths to! strength per cent. 627 595 IT 3T 32 32 31 4 G 680 645 0-4 2-3 17. The total rainfall for the year was 41-61, about an average fall; there was nothing more than usual to notice as to its influence on disease, but a flood of the river took place in September, which probably con- tributed to swell the admissions from fever. 18. Cholera, which had been raging in the city of Surat in, I believe, a very virulent from at last on the 4th April made its appearance in an epidemic Epidemic. form -Q pneg 0f the ]7th Regiment N. 1. It commenced on the 4th and ended on the 28th of April; during this period 25 cases were admitted for treat- ment—9 men, 11 women, 5 children. Of these 5 men, 2 women, and 1 child died. The disease first appeared in the right wing; this wing was immediately moved into tents, their