Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
When the 26th Madras Light Cavalry were reconstituted at Bangalore in 1903 the regiment was joined by a couple of squadrons of men from an Imperial Service Regiment in the north, and, after these men had been at Bangalore some months, many developed guinea-worms, our wards becoming filled with cases showing the worms in all stages of delivery. It took many days or weeks to wind out the worms and so many were broken in the operation that the number of men rendered unfit for duty became a serious matter. I consequently made enquiries as to methods employed for hastening the exit of the worm, since its rupture during extraction always led to severe suppuration.