1153

NOTES FROM INDIA.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

The Dufferin Fund.-The Increasing Plague Mortality.-The Character of the Volunteer Force in India.-AnEnterprisimg Nursing Association.-ne Report of theArmy Sanitary Comamissioners.THE report of the Dufferin Fund for 1902 recently issued

gives a record of useful work. Of the women engaged41 hold qualifications of the United Kingdom, 78 are

classed as of the second grade, being trained and

holding qualifications obtained in India, and 256 actas hospital assistants. In addition there are more or lesstrained midwives working under the association. Thesubcommittee appointed has recommended that the Govern.ment should raise the standard of female medical educationin the medical schools and that all lady doctors shouldundergo practical training in a special women’s hospitalbefore obtaining their degrees. At the present time thereare 114 Eurasian and native ladies being trained as assistantsurgeons and 95 as hospital assistants, besides 281 as nurses,dais, and compounders. Up-to-date operating tables havebeen provided for several centres, notably Lucknow, Rangoon,Lahore, Agra, Benares, and Allahabad. The total numberof women and children treated in the zenana hospitals,wards, and dispensaries throughout the country during theyear was 1,792,000 which, it appears, was only a very slightincrease over.tbat of the previous years.The plague epidemic is assuming alarming proportions. For

the week ending March 19th there were 40,527 deaths from<plague. This is an increase of nearly 7000 over the previousweek as against 29,236 for the corresponding week of1903. The local figures are important. In the Punjabthere were 10,174 deaths as against 6431 in the previousseven days ; in the United Provinces, 947, as against 8504;in the Bombay Presidency, 7,687, as against 7140; in

Bengal, 4797, as against 4386; in the Central Provinces,2804, as against 2290 ; in Central India, 1640, as against 955 ;in Rajputana, 1033, as aginst 621 ; in Kashmir, 526, as

against 405 ; in Bombay city, 849, as against 925 ; and inCalcutta, 295, as against 230 In the last case laterreturns show 474 deaths for the week ending March 26th.The increase of plague is general throughout India, but it isourious to note that while in the Bombay districts plagueseems to continue virulent all the year round, in the North-western districts it dies away in June and July to reappeara few months later in each year. There is no hiding the factthat plague is now worse in India than ever it has been.A recent inspection of volunteers by Lord Kitchener

called forth the opinion from him that every Englishmanby birth or descent should be a volunteer. It is to be hopedthat under his ruling some improvement in the physique aswell as in the status of the force will be brought about. TheGovernment and the military forces have hitherto shown

very little interest in volunteer movements. It is generallyforgotten that by the Army Regulations the force should bea European one. This has not been adhered to. It is not

very long ago that nearly every European in the Hyderabad(Sind) corps resigned and that the inspector general drew at-tention to the fact that so.ne corps, especially the Allahabadand Poona Rifles, had ceased to be European in character.It does not appear that the Government has taken any actionin this matter, but while f-o much attention is bestowed onthe native troops and the permitted contingents of the nativeStates very little is done for the volunteers. I had occasionto draw attention to the physique of those picked corpswhich attended the Delhi Durbar but the ordinary ranks ofmost corps are lamentable.The first annual report of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway

Nursing Association shows what can be done by an enter-prising organisation. A bungalow was transformed into a

hospital, a qualified nursing sister and nurse from Englandwere appointed, and patients from the different sections ofthe line were received. The whole scheme is now beingworked on a commercial basis and furnishes an organisedmedical and nursing staf for the whole of the employ&eacute;s. ’1 heEuropeans in isolated stations must feel great comfort inhaving such assistance available.

It would be a service to draw the attention of Members ofParliament to the absurdity of issuing the report on thesanitary measures in India for the year 1901 towards the end

of 1903. This annual report of the army sanitary com-missioners is not only belated but is merely an abstract ofother reports issued long before. Nearly all the informationgiven is contained in the report of the sanitary commissionerwith the Government of India and the added memoranda ofthe army commissioners merely repeat what is given in theearly pages of the same report. The report when issued ispractically two and a half years old.

,

March 31st.

CHOLERA IN MESOPOTAMIA AND PERSIA.(FROM THE BRITISH DELEGATE TO THE OTTOMAN

BOARD OF HEALTH.)

THE cholera outbreak at Bagdad is declining, if it hasnot indeed come to an end ; that at Basra, on the other

hand, is increasing and the disease has recently crossed theTurco-Persian frontier and appeared on Persian territory.The following are the returns for Basra since the date of mylast letter (THE LANCET, March 26th, p. 897) :-

From March 13th to 19 tjh ... 25 cases ... 27 deaths." "20th,, 26th ... 21 ... 20 "

" it 27th ,,31st ... 36 " ... 36 "

" April lst,, 10th... 37 ... 28 "

A considerable number of cases continue to be hiddenfrom the authorities during life and only come to their

knowledge after death. Thus in the above four periods thenumbers of cases returned as I trouv6s morts " were respec-tively 13, 8, 24, and 13.At Bagdad the following are the weekly returns of

cholera cases and deaths since the reappearance of thedisease there on March 7th :-

On March 7th ... ... ... ... 2 cases ...... 0 deathsFrom March 8th to March 13th 19 ,, ...... 11 "

" " 14th " 20th 16" ...... 15 "

" ,. 21st ,, 27th 9" ...... 4 "" " 28th to April 3rd... 6 " ...... 13 "

On April 6th............ 1 " ...... 0 "

The case reported on April 6th is the only one which hasbeen observed in Bagdad between April 3rd and 12th and itis therefore hoped that the disease may really have died outthere.On April 5th it was reported that cholera had appeared at

Kermanshah, on the Persian side of the Turco-Persianfrontier. On the 9th it was stated that six cases and fourdeaths had occurred up to that date. No further detailshave yet been received but the fact that the infection hascrossed the frontier and entered Persia is a regrettable one.On several occasions during the last few months there havebeen rumours that cholera had reached the important townof Meshed in Northern Persia but the rumours have not beenconfirmed and were probably not true. But should thedisease spread from Kermanshah through Persia and ulti-mately reach Meshed the danger would arise of its passingthence across the Perso-Russian frontier and spreading bythe Transcaspian Railway eastwards to Siberia and westwardsto European Russia, as it did in 1892.

Constantinople, April 15th.

LATIN-AMERICAN CONGRESS OF MEDI-CINE AND HYGIENE.

IN THE LANCET of Jan. 23rd we gave a preliminaryaccount from the pen of our special correspondent, mainlyas regards the medical side, of the Latin-American Con-

gress of Medicine and Hygiene which is still, so far as the

hygienic section is concerned, in progress at Buenos AyresThe Congress opened on April 3r]d and the medical por-tion of it closed on April 10th, but the exhibition of

hygiene which opened at the same time as the medical

portion remains "in being" until May 30th. We have nowbefore us the official programme of the hygienic exhibitionof which Dr. Emilio R. Coni is the president and Dr.Samuele Gache is the secretary. The architect is VirgilioCesari. The principal building in which the exhibition ishoused is the Pabellon Argentino of which we give a