26 Medical Report on the causes 



either blind, or so injured in constitution, as to be useless as soldiers, 

 and consequently discharged the service ; not a few died of dropsy ; 

 and others on sick leave. The regiment was removed several miles 

 into the jungle and placed in tents, since which time not a single case 

 has appeared ; subsequent to the disappearance of small-pox amongst 

 the men of the Local Battalion, cholera broke out, and 36 cases oc- 

 curred in five months. Both of these Epidemics ceased, on the setting 

 in of the rains. 



4. The Appendix B. is an abstract of the Jail Hospital Reports 

 for the last six years and a half, arranged, as in the former case. Epi- 

 demic disease has shewn itself slightly, compared with the former 

 Report. The amount of sickness on the contrary is very remarkable ; 

 in every year it has exceeded the number of prisoners, and in the 

 year 1841, the proportion of sickness to strength was nearly four to 

 one. The class of diseases which makes up this large amount, be- 

 comes immediately obvious on referring to the Appendix. Out of 

 the total number of patients admitted, nearly one-half were suffering 

 from Endemic diseases ; a result, however, which is not surprising, 

 when it is considered, that most of the prisoners in the Akyab Jail 

 had been transported for life from Bengal and the North Western 

 Provinces ; and of these, the greater number are murderers and thugs. 

 The confinement of a jail alone, after their former wandering life, will 

 have a material influence in predisposing to disease, without consider- 

 ing the influence of the mind, which in the case of religious enthusiasts, 

 like the thugs, will be of the first importance, — morose ; the evil propen- 

 sities of their nature entirely checked ; deprived of liberty ; working in 

 irons in a foreign country day after day ; sentenced perhaps at an ad- 

 vanced age ; exposed to the extreme vicissitudes of climate, rain and 

 heat ; probably men who never before experienced severe bodily labor, — 

 Is it singular that such a result should be attained ? On the contrary, 

 the amount of sickness is very small, when the foregoing circum- 

 stances are taken into consideration. And this result is to be attri- 

 buted to the excellent regulations of the executive, which are strictly 

 enforced. I am alluding to cleanliness, diet, and regularity of habits. 

 This power in regulating the domestic habits of prisoners, is entirely 

 lost in other classes ; and it is a curious fact, that although in the case 

 of life prisoners, there is a proportion of nearly two or three times 



