206
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BENGAL.
Marches.
XIII. Marches and service.—A detachment of 73 men marched from the outpost of Munipur
for Samaguting at the latter end of November, to act with the force against the Naga
tribes.
Hospital.
XIV. Hospital— Is a very suitable building, capable of accommodating 50 patients with-
out over-crowding; its construction was fully described in last year's report; it has just been
re-thatched; it is a large enough building, but, with the unusually large daily average number
of sick for the year (52.78), each man would have 74.8 of superficial and 1289.4 of cubic space.
The cook-house attached to the hospital is in good repair. Repairs are much needed for the
dead-house, the walls of which are rotten and imperfect at the lower part.
Sickness,
mortality and
invaliding.
XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding.— Strength of the regiment—
Present | 592.72 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Absent | 86.30 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | 679.02 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
STATION. | PERIOD. | Strength. | TOTAL NUMBER OF |
Daily average number of sick. |
PER CENT. OF STRENGTH PER ANNUM. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From | To | Admis- sions. |
Deaths. | Admis- sions. |
Deaths. | Daily average sick. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head-quarters at Cachar | 1st January | 31st December | 460.68 | 767 | 11 | 51.56 | 166.49 | 2.38 | 11.19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Detachment at Noarbund | Ditto | Ditto. | 32.28 | 14 | 25 | 43.37 | .78 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
„ | Jheereeghat | Ditto | 14th June | 10.75 | 10 | .26 | 205.7 | 2.41 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
„ | Mynadhur | Ditto | 15th May | 10.88 | 37 | .67 | 919.39 | 6.15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
„ | Monierkhall | Ditto | 31st Dec.. | 39.15 | 52 | 1 | 1.23 | 132.82 | 2.55 | 3.14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
„ | *Munipur | 13th May | 31st December | 38.98 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total | 592.72 | 880 | 12 | 53.97 | 148.46 | 2.02 | 9.11 |
Number of deaths in hospital, 12; out of hospital, 13; total | 25; | per cent. of total strength | 3.68 | ||||||||||||
„ | invalided | 18; | ,, | ,, | 2.65 | ||||||||||
,, | sent on sick leave | 48; | ,, | „ | 6.88 | ||||||||||
„ | days spent in hospital, 19,701; per admission | 22.38; | per man of total strength | 28.26 | |||||||||||
,, | ,, | on sick leave, 6,752; per man | 140.66; | „ | ,, | 9.69 | |||||||||
Total temporary loss of service per man of total strength | 37.95 |
Principal
causes of
sickness.
XVI. Principal causes of sickness.— Out of a total of 880 admissions, 530 were for
fevers, viz., ague (a) 481, ague (b) 44, ague (c) 2, remittent fever 3, dysentery 60, diarrhœa 13
injuries 94, diseases of the respiratory system 36, general debility 23, rheumatism 22,
conjunctivitis 11, venereal 4.
Principal
causes of
mortality.
XVII. Principal causes of mortality.— Out of a total of 25 deaths, 11 occurred in head-
quarters hospital, 9 while absent on sick leave and furlough; there were 2 cases from suicide,
one at head-quarters, the other at Noarbund outpost. of the deaths at head-quarters, 4 were
due to ague, 1 to remittent fever. Out of 60 admissions for dysentery, there were no
deaths.
Epidemics.
XVIII. Epidemics.— None. There were 3 sporadic cases of cholera: one, a sepoy, who
died in hospital, of the 34th Native Infantry at Allahabad, while on furlough; another, a sepoy
returning from furlough, who died on board a steamer in the Sunderbuns; the third, a sepoy
at Jheereeghat outpost. One recruit, who arrived in a batch of eight on 25th December from
Fyzabad, was seized with small-pox en route. They were all kept in strict quarantine, and
every precaution was taken to prevent the disease from spreading, and with good result, for
no other cases have occurred up to the present time (3rd February 1878). There was an
epidemic of small-pox at Cawnpore at the time that these recruits started for Cachar; another
of their number had been left with the disease, at Calcutta, on their way up.
Vaccination.
XIX. Vaccination.— None of the men have been vaccinated during the year, all recruits
having had small-pox.
Recommend-
ations.
XX. Recommendations.— All recommendations during the year were made verbally to the
commanding officer, and were in all cases attended to.
Special
observations
and remarks.
XXI. Special observations and remarks.—The abandonment of the outposts of Jheeree-
ghat and Mynadhur has proved a beneficial step, as far as the health of the men is concerned;
for these two outposts were particularly unhealthy, and were a constant source of malarious
disease amongst the men of the detachments. When the Deputy Surgeon-General made his
annual inspection on 26th of September 1876, he noted the cachectic appearance of those men
who had lately returned from duty at these outposts.
*The amount of sickness amongst the men of the detachment at Munipur is not included in the above. Since no hospital assistant
from the regiment is on duty with the detachment, the sick men there are treated by the native doctor attached to the Political Agency of
Munipur.