Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/137

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IN INDIA.
117

vise every one to follow it. The natives, when inclined,are the most expert thieves in the world; to remove the contents of the bed-room in which the master is sleeping is considered an easy matter, to steal the sword from his side,or the revolver from under his pillow requires but the dexterity of a journeyman, and an accomplished artist will succeed in stealing the very bed clothes from under him, leaving the chill of the night to apprise him of his loss.

The uniform of officers of Native Infantry is almost the same as that of H. M.service,the chief distinction being in the button and the red stripe of the trouser. That of the medical officers was formerly the same as other officers of the regiment, but of late a fixed uniform has been assigned the service,the same in all branches, a great improvement upon the old system, which imposed a new uniform upon every change of regiment, and a great extra expense. Still there is something wanting in the dress of medical officers to identify them in action;but of this anon.

8. IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL OFFICERS.—To a right thinking man, few positions in life are more serious or more responsible than that of a medical officer in charge of an out station, with the lives of two or three thousand individuals entrusted to his care, where he may, at any moment, be called to attend cases of imminent danger without time