156
BARRACKS
the provision of seats is at the rate of about one per family on the married establishment, with a similar variation in the case of large and small numbers. Hospitals are fenced off from the rest of the barrack buildings, and are constructed in accordance with the approved principles of modern construction, avoiding, however, the ospi a s. ex trayaghospital ance -with which they are often applied. As there are no facilities for treating in their quartet’s men who are slightly ill, many patients are admitted to military hospitals who, in civil life, would be out-patients, or would be treated in their own homes. The number of beds provided is at the rate of 5| per cent, on the strength of the garrison, exclusive of officers. In civil life the provision of hospital beds, at the rate of one per 1000 of population, is considered by some authorities to be fairly sufficient; and even if this proportion is multiplied fivefold, nothing more emphasizes the difference of character between civil and military hospitals than the contrast of such a number with the 58 beds per 1000 provided for the army. In the United Kingdom the allowance of floor-space and air-space for patients is as follows :— Air-space. Floor-space. 900 cubic feet For light cases . 65 square feet 1200 „ For ordinary cases . 85 ,, 1500 For infectious cases. 110 ,, The construction adopted is the pavilion system. In a large hospital the light-case wards are for about 28 beds each, and the ordinary large wards are for 22 beds, one of them specially fitted up and warmed for pneumonia cases. There are smaller wards for cases under observation, for prisoners, lunatics, ophthalmia, itch, and serious cases requiring quiet and special nursing. General reading-rooms and dining-rooms are provided for patients able to avail themselves of them. There are the usual accessories of a hospital, namely, the administrative department, the stores, kitchens, quarters for medical staff and hospital orderlies, and for nursing sisters in the larger hospitals, in which also are provided an operating-room, lift for recumbent patients, and apparatus for disinfection and destruction, unless these processes can be earned out in existing local establishments. The isolation wards for infectious cases form a separate hospital as far as nursing goes, cut off from the rest by double fences with neutral space between, and there is no covered communication between the different wards or ward blocks, which are at least two, and often three, in number, so that the three prevalent diseases, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and typhoid, can be kept separate. At some large stations a separate isolation hospital is provided, with its own staff and administration, and divided into two portions, one for men and one for women and young children, if the latter cannot be provided for in local hospitals. Occasionally a hospital for women and children is also provided, with a general wing and a maternity wing. The barracks for other branches of the army are very similar to those for infantry as far as officers and men are concerned, with the addition of stables and their accessories, sheds for waggons and guns, stores and shops, to meet their several requirements. In stables each horse is allowed at least 1500 cubic feet of air-space from 85 to 110 feet of floor-space. The stalls, 11 Stables. fand eet ]011g py 5 feet 6 inches to 6 feet wide, are arranged against the outer walls, with windows over them. In addition to inlet ventilation at the eaves, fresh air is brought to each horse when lying down by ducts at a height of 15 inches above the floor. Windows and skylights are provided to give 9 square feet of glassspace per stall, and the windows are arranged on each side of the stable, and are all made to open, so as to give cross ventilation. Stables generally have open roofs with roof ventilation, but if there are rooms over them they have concrete ceilings and large extracting shafts to carry off vitiated air. Paving is generally of cement concrete, as being unabsorbent and free from joints. It is grooved to prevent slipping as far as possible, the grooves being arranged to run to surface channels and to be easily swept out. Infirmary stables are similar but larger, giving 1800 cubic feet per horse ; but half the infirmary accommodation of 6 per cent, on the total ’ number of horses is in the shape of loose boxes, some of them fitted with slings, and giving at least 2000 cubic feet per horse. Two of these boxes are in a separate building for isolation purposes. For a cavalry regiment a riding-school 150 feet by 53 feet 6 inches, 8 open maneges each 180 feet by 60 feet, and courses for jumping and “heads and posts” exercise, about 1100 or 1200 feet lono-0 by 150 feet wide, are also provided, as well as shops for saddlers and saddle-tree makers, and a four-fire forge with a couple of enclosed shoeing sheds. Each horse and field artillery battery, besides its barrack and stable accommodation, has its own battery office, store, shops for collar-makers and wheelers, forge, harness rooms, gun-shed and manege ; while all other accessories are for joint use, on a scale proportionate to the number of batteries stationed together ; and a system similar in principle prevails in barracks for garrison artillery, engineers, army service corps, army ordnance corps, and army medical corps, in all which branches of
the service the troop or company is the administrative unit, instead of the battalion or regiment. At foreign stations similar accommodation is provided for white troops, and the same general principles hold both for European and native troops, but the air-space and floor-space porej„n allowed, and the details of construction, vary greatly stations according to climate and locality. The main difference is that in tropical and sub-tropical countries provision is made for the freest possible circulation of air below the ground floors of inhabited buildings, which are raised at least 4 feet above cement concrete paving covering the site. All such buildings are provided with verandahs, generally on all four sides within the tropics, and on the sunny side, at any rate, at sub-tropical stations. These verandahs are commonly used for dining in, and as they take the place of passages, the internal arrangement of the buildings is, as a rule, simpler than at home. The space for Europeans allowed in barrack rooms varies from 60 square feet of floor-space and 630 cubic feet of air-space in Nova Scotia and a hill-station in Mauritius to 80 feet of floor-space and 1000 feet of air-space at the hottest or unhealthiest stations, such as Port Louis in Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Ceylon, Singapore, &c. ; while in hospitals the allowance varies between 85 feet of floor-space with 1200 feet of air-space and 110 feet of floor-space with 1600 feet of air-space, or 150 feet of floor-space with 2100 feet of air-space for infectious cases. For native troops in all climates the normal 57 feet of floor-space and 600 feet of air-space in barracks is generally adhered to. The aspect of buildings in hot climates is in most cases either north and south instead of east and west, or else such as to catch the prevailing winds. In some places it is necessary, especially in the case of hospitals, to fill the openings of the verandahs with movable louvres ; and in some stations, such as Sierra Leone, where tornadoes are common, it is found advisable to enclose the verandahs to a considerable extent to prevent the rooms from being flooded by driven rain, or to provide hurricane shutters. The mode of construction varies greatly, according to the custom and resources of the country, both as regards labour and materials, the local construction being generally adopted, provided it gives sufficiently sound sanitary and vermin-proof buildings. For several stations, however, it has been found cheaper as well as better to send many of the materials from England, even including bricks. In hurricane countries, if wooden buildings are used, they should not be more than one storey in height. In earthquake countries one-storeyed wooden buildings with iron frames are the best, and they should have wooden ceilings instead of plaster. In white-ant countries as little wood should be used as possible, and that should be ant-proof. Outside India British barracks have to satisfy the manifold needs of all the branches and establishments of an army of upwards of 200,000 men; or, in other words, they form a landed and house estate of the value of somewhere about 40 million pounds, scattered in many hundreds of localities all over the world, with all kinds of varieties of climate, position, and altitude, subject to many different systems of law and government, and adapted to meet the customs, prejudices, and religious requirements of many different races. (h. Lc. ) India.—The changes which have led up to the present status of barracks and military sanitation in India are directly traceable to the recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1859, and are primarily accountable for a net decrease in the annual army death-rate in India, since that date, of about 54 per mille, i.e., from 69 to 15 per mille. In the upkeep of the necessary standard plans and regulations, whether for British or native troops, in hills or plains, the Government of India is guided by the Royal Engineers and medical services. Further assistance in these matters is given by special sanitary commissioners, who report annually on the health of the troops, and incidentally on the military works carried out in each Presidency, and by the Army Sanitary Committee at home; Parliament being kept informed of all Indian sanitary measures in a consolidated report framed every year by the India Office. Present practice, so far as it differs materially from that of the United Kingdom, is briefly described below. The common difficulty of obtaining sufficient gradients or suitable outfall for ordinary pipe drainage has resulted, except in rare cases, in the adoption of the primitive methods of conservancy known as the “removal” and “trench” systems. In the former, which is common to private quarters and dwelling-houses as well as to public latrines, the foul matter is removed by a native “sweeper” in constant attendance, and transported nightly to
