27

CALCUTTA MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS

System of under-feeding.

services would be a tedious and difficult task, as the men of the native army garrison stations
situated in Bengal, the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, the Punjab, and in Central India.
Some of the regiments are stationed permanently along the north-east and north-west
frontiers, and the native army generally has to serve in some stations of well-known
unhealthiness, in which the meteorological and other well-recognized sanitary conditions are
widely different from what they are in Calcutta. The higher admission and sick rate of the
native army is probably the result of the order by which every man unfit for duty is shown
as a patient in hospital, and the higher death-rate in the police force may be due to the fact
that (quoting Dr. Woodford's remarks) "the police chowkeedar's daily average of duty
being from 8 to 10 hours, he is exposed to all the changes of climate and season." Perhaps,
too, the system of under-feeding (alluded to in paragraph 14 of this summary), while it
doubtless lessens the power of resisting disease, may at the same time tend to cause a fatal
termination of many diseases whose course in more healthy subjects would be towards
recovery.

Statistics of admissions and deaths from fever, &c.

        8. The following table exhibits the rate per cent. of the total admissions and deaths
caused by some of the diseases which were more commonly met with:—

Enteric fever

        9. Enteric fever gave 14 admissions and 11 deaths during the year, and as the
mortality from it was at the exceptionally high rate of 785.71 per mille of the total number
(14) of cases, and contributed 68.75 per cent. of the mortality from fevers, besides causing
more than one-fifth of the total deaths of the police force, it would appear that, in the
absence of any more definite information regarding it, a searching inquiry is very urgently
called for as far as regards the sanitary conditions (more especially as relates to the water-
supply and sewers) of the several thanas or localities from which these cases were admitted
into hospital. The average number of cases of enteric fever treated annually in this hospital,
during the past five years was 10.4, with an average mortality of 9.2, or at the rate of 884.6
per mille of total treated; and thus these figures enunciate the alarming fact that this fever
has proved to be a considerably more fatal disease than even cholera when in an epidemic
form.

Cholera.

        10. There has been a marked decrease both in the number and severity of the cases of
cholera admitted into this hospital during 1876, as compared with the average of the preced-
ing five years; the admissions were only 14, against 23, and the mortality was less than half
what it was for the same period, being 3 against 7. Such a marked decrease in the numbers
treated and in the severity of the disease may most probably be correctly attributed to the
improved sanitary conditions of the various thanas, as well as to the introduction of a
pure water-supply and of an efficient system of drainage generally throughout the city—
improvements from which the police force perhaps derive more benefit than do the civil
population of Calcutta generally.

Thanas from which cases of cholera were admitted.

        11. Cholera, while only selecting single victims in each case, was met with in the reserve
force and Barra Bazar, Jorasanko, Sookea's Street, Shampookur, and Fenwick Bazar thanas
in the town, and in the Alipore, Tallygunge, Ballygunge, Balliaghatta, Entally, and
Moocheekhola thanas in the suburbs. Two cases occurred amongst the river police. Of the
cases which proved fatal, one was admitted from Fenwick Bazar, one from Balliaghatta,
and one from the river.

A decrease of cholera, and an increase of enteric fever.

        12. It will be gathered from the three preceding paragraphs that, while there has
been a marked decrease in the number and severity of cholera cases, enteric fever has been
on the increase. This fact, considered in all its aspects and in connection with the improved
water-supply and drainage, might perhaps be worthy of investigation, which should be
followed by prompt action towards having every probable cause of enteric fever removed if
possible.

Rates of admissions and deaths in the different divisions.

        13. The rates of admissions and deaths per cent. of strength in different divisions of
the police force were as follow:—