Report of a departmental committee on the prevalence of venereal disease among the British troops in India.

Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a departmental committee on the prevalence of venereal disease among the British troops in India. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    As, however, the question of transferring the direction of cantonment funds to Lieutenant-Generals Commanding was then under discussion, it was decided to take no action, for the time being, with regard to the above proposals. Shortly after Government sanctioned the closure of the hospitals at Cannanore, Solon, Wellington, Poona, Kirkee, Ahmednagar, Beesa, Ahmedabad. Aden, Karachi, Hyderabad, Kamptee, and Hharmsala. 10. The question of the future policy to be pursued with regard to these hospitals having been again re-opened by the Commander-in-Cliief, it was decided, after much discussion, to accept the principles advocated by His Excellency in January 1895, and orders were issued accordingly, a report also being made to the Secretary of State. Agreeably to the policy which it had been decided to adopt, sanction was given for the closure of the hospitals at Benares, Cawnpore, Chakrata, Landour, Muttra, Xaini Tal, Banikhet, Boorkee, Hum Hum, Eyzabad, Perozepore, Multan, Jliansi, Nowgong, Nowskera, Saugor, Skahjehanpore, Sitapore, Jullundur, Jutogk, Kasauli, Amritsar, Balhousie, Bagshai, Subathu, Campbellpore, Cherat, Sialkot, Bangalore, Bellary, Belgaum, Mandalay, and Trimulgherry, and the establishment of out-door dispensaries at the following places :— Multan, Hum-Hum, Eyzabad, Jliansi, Saugor, Skahjehanpore, Sitapore, Bagshai, Subathu, Campbellpore, Cherat, Sialkot, and Trimulgherry. 11. This brings the history of these hospitals up to the present time, leaving only 13 “ Station Eollowers’ Hospitals” (the designation substituted for the old Cantonment and Cantonment General Hospitals) now in existence, viz., those at Agra, Allahabad, Calicut, Beolali, Jubbmpore, Lucknow, Meean Meer, Meerut, Peshawar, Bawal Pindi, Secunderabad, St. Thomas’ Mount, and Umballa. 12. The advisability of taking stricter measures to prevent solicitation in canton- ments, especially with a view to the suppression of loitering and importuning in the vicinity of barracks, having attracted the attention of the Governor General in Council, rules providing for the suppression of such practices have been published under the 1896. Cantonments Act (XIII. of 1889), and will form a part of the Cantonment Code when this is introduced. Appendix Xo. II. Medical Beport on Cases of Syphilis from India, by Surgeon-Major H. B. Whitehead, Army Medical Staff. Boyal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Sir, 21st August 1896. In accordance with your wishes, before relinquishing the charge of the Surgical Hivision of this Hospital, I have the honour to bring to your notice certain facts in connection with the great prevalence of syphilis among the foreign invalids admitted here, and the condition in which many of these patients arrive. 2. The disease appears to have become a more frequent cause of invaliding from India and the Colonies than formerly, and in many cases to have assumed a more malignant type, to such an extent that death has occurred in many instances from the severity of the disease itself. 3. No one can imagine a sadder sight than the reception here of a batch of poor fellows suffering from this disease, from one of the troopships, utterly broken down in health, hardly able to crawl, covered with scabs and sores, with the foul odour of the disease about them, objects of disgust and loathing to themselves and all around them, their condition is indeed pitiable and shocking. Many of the cases under treatment lately in this Hivision have been of the most revolting character, accompanied by horrible disfigurement and destruction of tissues. In some cases patients have been in this Hospital for two or three years, unfit to mix even with their fellows, and if they have ultimately left this Hospital alive, have done so completely crippled, and so permanently disfigured, as to render their lives a misery to themselves and their chance of earning a livelihood quite hopeless.