162

MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.

war garrison however are, and have been, very hard, owing to the number of guards required.
The average number of continuous nights in bed for the past year has been 5.86. This has
been greatly due to the very large proportion of men sick in hospital, entailing heavier duties
on the others. The guards in the fort are on duty the whole week without a full night in bed.

Marches and
service.

    XIII. Marches and service .—The regiment marched on service in one march 17
miles to Michni on the 16th of April, and returned in one march on the 22nd idem.
They remained at Michni for six days in a standing camp. During the cholera epidemics,
the regiment marched to the general parade-ground on the 2nd of October, and halted there
up to the morning of the 11th October, when the whole of the sick and hospital marched off
to Durbungie about 5 miles, being conveyed on elephants and carts. On the morning of
the 12th October the regiment marched out to Baij Hurree Sing, when they halted, in a
fixed camp, up to the 13th noon. On the 13th November the regiment marched back to the
general parade-ground in cantonments, and on the 16th November to their own lines. From
the 2nd of October, when the regiment went under canvas, they did not stiffer from the
heat in the tents, and the camp at Baij Hurree Sing was fairly pleasant owing to a steady
breeze that blew there all day, and which was not found at Peshawar.

Hospital.

    XIV. Hospital .—The hospital is one of the regular old type of buildings erected for
native infantry corps, and has been described. See reports, 15th Native Infantry, for 1870.
An excellent building since ventilation was put into it in 1875 for the hot weather, but
extremely cold during the cold season, notwithstanding the very complete set of purdahs to
close the verandahs, arches and the outer doors. So that this winter I got the Public
Works Department to fill in up to 5 feet six archways in each ward (three on either
side), and quite fill up the two archways, one on either side of fire-place, so as to shut
off the two wards from each other. This has made the place much more comfortable, and
any draft that is there passes 5 feet from the ground and fully 5 feet over the tops of the beds.
With the present arrangement of half-closed archways and two separate wards, the two
large fire-places keep the hospital fairly warm; of course all the bronchitis and rheumatism
cases are kept close to the fire. The hospital is sufficiently lighted for ordinary purposes
with two country oil lamps.

Hospital-bed-
ding and
clothing.

    The bedding and clothing are supplied from an hospital fund belonging to the regiment,
a first class private institution, and which so pleased His Excellency the Viceroy, that he pre-
sented the fund this year with Rs. 100 from his own private purse on his visit to Peshawar.
This fund is supported by a deduction from the pay of all that belong to the regiment, officers and
men; each gives according to his pay, a certain percentage being fixed. From it bedding, warm
clothing for hospital uses, extra comforts, and many hospital necessaries are supplied upon the
recommendation of the medical officers, or the committee of native officers who look after the fund.

Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.

    XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding .—Strength of the regiment:—

Principal
causes of
sickness.

    XVI.Principal causes of sickness .—Malarious fevers, for which the Peshawar valley is so
notorious, with dysentery, diarrhea and congestion of the spleen, all more or less influenced or
probably dependent upon the same poison as the fevers, were the diseases that caused the
immense sickness of the regiment during the Past year: