180

MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.

    The sick of this battery and of the garrison company of artillery
were treated in a hospital near the lines. This hospital consists of one large
ward in which about 20 patients can be accommodated. The ventilation in
it was good, and it was warmed by fires in the cold weather. Attached to the
hospital was a bath-room complete in its equipment. There was no special
ward for infectious, diseases. The hospital wards were clean and orderly, and
all the arrangements (including medicines and instruments) for the proper
care and treatment of the sick, were complete and satisfactory.

    Regarding certain points in the sanitary condition of the station of
Kohat, the Deputy Surgeon-General of the Rawal Pindi Circle offers the
following remarks, viz., —"Water is derived chiefly from a spring or springs
near the fort. Formerly, constant complaints were made of the impurity
of the water-supply; but this is no longer the case, as the water is conveyed
into cantonments by covered channels to the various regiments, and stored
in brick-work tanks covered in by a good roof, which keeps out all
the dust and dirt. The ground at the end slopes down to the ground level
of the tank on to a grated platform. Brass taps in the tank wall give exit to
the water. There is an escape drain beneath the grating. In the hot season it
is customary to fill the tanks during the night, and by this practice the temper-
ature of the water is lowered. The great fault of this cantonment is over-
crowding, and although much has been done, until the centre infantry lines are
removed and their site left open, the sanitary condition of this cantonment
cannot be considered to come up to the requirements of the present day.

    "I went over the ground with Dr. Farrell, the senior medical officer,
and the most eligible site to which to remove these lines would be to the south-
east of the cavalry hospital. This site was also approved of by Deputy
Surgeon-General G. Banister, and it is high, well-drained, and open. These
were the first lines built when the cantonment was formed, and their sanitary
defects are many; they are now out of repair, and I am of opinion that it is
most advisable to level them and remove the new lines to the site mentioned.

    "As a rule, along the frontier no latrine system exists; but it is advis-
able that some system of conservancy should be established at Kohat, as
at times like the present, when the neighbouring tribes are inimical, the
men of the garrison cannot go to a sufficient distance from the lines
for natural purposes without risk, and they thus make use of the ground
near the station, and this is most objectionable. The latrine question and
the removal of the central infantry lines are the two great sanitary wants
of this cantonment. In the early part of the present year a proposal on
the subject was submitted to Government, sites were selected, estimates
made of cost of the land, and plans of latrines and report submitted. No
reply has yet been given.

    "Another objectionable feature in connection with this cantonment is, the
village of "Bahadur Shere Khan-ki-gurhi," situated between the the general and
cavalry hospitals. From its situation it may almost be said to form part of can-
tonment, but it is not so. It is not amenable to sanitary rules, and may become
at any time a very dangerous source of disease. This question has also at
various times been brought to notice by the authorities, and the amount of
compensation seems to be the main hindrance to its final settlement."

No. 5 Carrison Battery of Artillery—Rohat.

Medical
Officers.

    I. Medical Officers. —Surgeon T. Moloney, M.D., has submitted the follow-
ing report. The medical
charge of the battery has been
held by the same medical
officers who have had charge
of the Hazara Mountain Bat-
tery, vide Hazara Mountain
Battery Report for 1876.

Location and
movements.

    II. Location and movements. —
The battery is quartered in the
Kohat fort as a permanency. A
detachment of 21 men was sup-
plied from 13th March to 10th
December to garrison the fort at
Edwardesabad.