?57
From the above tables it is clear that malarial fever has been the principal
disease, and in seeking for its cause it is important to remember that the
barracks were, during the years under report, exposed to the emanations rising
from the low lying and inundated ground between the Indus and the plateau
on which they are built. The late Surgeon-General, Her Majesty's Forces, does
not allow that the inundations were the cause of the fevers that have always
prevailed among the troops during the autumn, and suggests that the cold winds
and great daily variations of temperature at this season are the more active
influences in the production of malarial fevers. Undoubtedly such conditions
favour a recurrence of the phenomena which we designate fever in those
who have malarial poison in their blood, but that they produce fever is, I submit,
not as yet established. The range at Belgaum, for example, during these months
is as high as at Hyderabad, but the admission rate for fever is lower. In Belgaum,
too, the fever rate begins to rise in July, when the range is the minimum of the
year. But in Hyderabad the fever rate commences to rise in May and steadily
increases month by month until August, when in September it takes a sudden
rise which increases until December; but in January it suddenly falls to nearly
a third of what it was in the previous month. This latter increase is coincident
with the gradual drying up of the inundated land to windward, and in my
opinion is largly due to it, as the fall in the fever rate is also coincident
with the complete dryness of the land.
In 1882, however, Colonel LeMesurier, R.E., Superintending Engineer in
Sind, prevented the inundation, and although, of course, it is too short a time
to say positively what effect this measure will have, it is interesting to observe
that at the station hospital where all the troops, Artillery as well as Infantry,
were treated, the number of admissions from malarial fevers was only 206 against
332 in the previous year, and the rate was the low one of 549·3 per 1,000 of
annual average strength.
But there are other sources of malaria besides the inundated land. An
abundant supply of pure water has been introduced into the camp as well as
into the city, but great as this boon is to a community, it must always be
attended with danger if no adequate means are provided for carrying it off
after use. This danger, both as regards the camp and city, was pointed out by me
in 1880, but without practical results.
The surface drains for the cook-rooms and wash-houses in camp have been
constructed of bricks set in lime. They are much too wide and deep, and they
end in an elongated earth trench in which the water stagnates and which have
been justly condemned for years by the medical officers as a cause of sickness;
but no money is available to complete the system that was begun without having
sufficient funds provided to finish it.
The present out-fall of the drainage from these wash-houses, cook-rooms,
&c., is wrong, as it is to windward of the camp, and that it will injuriously
affect the Artillery sooner or later I feel certain. It is a great pity that money
cannot be raised for a comprehensive scheme by which the sewage of the city
and cantonment could be carried through pipe sewers to the sandy plain below
and to the eastward of the city, and between it and the Fuleli as what is now
an arid waste might be turned into a productive farm to the profit of all
concerned.
COLA'BA.
The Artillery Barracks occupy the ridge on the east side of the road leading
to the light-house. They consist of a single story, and are built on the high
plinths on which it was originally intended to erect upper-storied barracks.
For a coast climate if only they had been built on raised basements with air
perflation beneath the floors, they would have been almost perfect barracks.
The Infantry Barracks are situated on the low lying ground on the west
of the road and between it and Back Bay along which the lines extend. They have
very low plinths and are of very inferior design. The ground on which they
stand is waterlogged during the monsoon and raised foot-paths are made across
it to the barracks.
B 357-15