Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/140

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ADVICE TO OFFICERS

ful issue. And if it should be his fate to fall a victim, he will have the consolation of dying in the cause of humanity, in the protection of his friends, and the service of his country.

No small share of courage is required to encounter an attack of cholera; yet the world seldom give medical men credit for it. The officer who heads a successful attack against a powerful enemy, or sustains their charge unflinchingly, is looked upon as a hero, and rewarded, as he deserves, with honour and promotion. The physician, who with no less courage encounters the assault of death, when scores of stronger men than himself fall around him, is too often passed over unheeded, unhonoured and forgotten.

9, HOSPITAL ATTENDANCE.—The hospital visits are made at sunrise and sunset. All medicines should, if possible, be taken in presence of the surgeon; and, with proper arrangement, this, in the majority of cases can be done, by having a stock of doses likely to be required ready prepared and carried round in a tray, each patient having his lota or katora ready to receive it. Sepoys have a prejudice against drinking out of a glass; but they will not object to the contents of the glass if poured into their own vessel, and by a man of good caste.

The authority of the Surgeon is paramount in his hospital, and though the commanding officer