Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/81

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IN INDIA
61

ment; due notice of which would readily be given by the town major; and further, all coroner's inquests in the city, due notice of which would be given by the coroner.

To enable officers to give the desirable attendance at these institutions, it would be necessary to give them travelling allowance of sixty rupees a month, the regulated hire of a palkee carriage. Most Assistant Surgeons spin out their time in Calcutta, and see very little of its society; there are so many big wigs, that the tyro is lost in their shade. Nobody knows a stranger, unless the stranger makes the first advances, and calls; and this is so repugnant to the feelings of young men, that they prefer living aloof. They, therefore, often lead a solitary life, and before their time of probation is over, are glad to get off to the interior.

This is the time to become acquainted with the native language; and if at this period he neglects it, he will in future repent of it. It is a humiliating thing not to be able to speak Hindostanni fluently, and not be able to make oneself understood in the general routine of duty. Let him, therefore, engage a Moonshee, and devote four hours a-day to study.

9. ENNUI AND HYPOCHONDRIASIS.—The first six months is the most trying period of an Assistant-surgeon's career, perhaps the most cri-