men’s livers sound, and of making efficient, healthy soldiers for India. Wherever the régime is otherwise, as in the case of cavalry and artillery, who have some exercise, or where an enlightened officer allows his men to go shooting, there is, of course, improved health. But nobody learns the lesson.
“People seem to consider that health is a natural production of India, instead of being the result of rational management. At the same time everybody says that India is ‘so unhealthy.’”
In contrast with this dreary picture, again, there may be seen one at Sealkote, another at Rangoon, and a few more here and there which to read of is like meeting with a spring in the desert. There the soldiers find themselves safer and happier under the hottest sunshine in the open air than snoozing in a crowded room, in the intervals between drams. But for the hottest hours there is a shaded reading-room, with sixteen newspapers, books, chess-boards and other games. As soon as the sun declines, however, the men sally forth to something they care for more. Some go to work at their respective shops,—the tailors, the armourers, the shoemakers, the saddlers, and the watchmakers. Others repair to their garden, where they are raising vegetables for sale, or for prizes. Tools, seed, and land are provided; and, where there are hours cool enough for cricket, there are some which admit of gardening. One regiment there has 8000l. in its Savings Bank; and at that station nobody seems to find it too hot; and we hear no complaints about health. What we do hear is that more workshops for other trades are desired, and also a gymnasium.
In this department of health,—this creation or preclusion of liver-complaints, the errors are of a kind which only a central authority can get rid of, and the advantages are such as only a central authority can diffuse throughout India. The issue of spirits must be stopped altogether as a daily custom, and pure water, coffee, beer, and any innocent drinks substituted, and made obtainable at the canteens. The canteen system must be reformed; and if the poison of native spirits cannot be wholly put out of reach, every inducement should tend, not as now, to encourage tippling, but to occupy the men’s thoughts, and gratify their taste with something better.
Again, in the erection or improvement of all Stations, provision must be made by adequate authority for industrial pursuits and harmless amusements being always open to the men. A sharp line of demarcation might easily be drawn between the men whose minds are interested, and fortunes improved by profitable labour when off duty, and the wretches who sink under the curse of ennui, and the temptations it brings with it. At one station there were thirty-six cases of delirium tremens in one year (1859), while at another there were more than thirty-six good fellows, well and cheerful, laying by earnings in the Savings Bank. From one regiment there may be deserters by the dozen,—miserable men who find their days intolerable, and “see no prospect,” after having known formerly what it was to earn money at a trade: and, in contrast with those, there are elsewhere men entering into competitive examination within their own regiment, of whom twenty are declared qualified “for the administrative service of the Government in the civil and military departments.”
On the one hand we see desertion, corruption, suicide, or a slower death in hospital or by invaliding. On the other we see men striving to become good soldiers first, in order to get leave to follow their trades, or enter into competitions afterwards, under every inducement to preserve their respectability, and thereby under the best conditions in regard to health.
The general conditions of health are altogether unattainable except through such a central authority as it is now sought to establish. “Moisture is everywhere,” as the evidence tells us. Where it does not appear on the surface, it has merely sunk into the subsoil, to reek up into the dwellings and the outer air, mixed with vegetable refuse, and thus, in combination with heat, completing the apparatus for the generation of fever, dysentery, and cholera. Every kind of liquid is thrown out upon the ground,—the emptyings of kitchens, and chambers, and baths, and washtubs; and it must evaporate either there or from the subsoil. It makes noisome fogs in the early mornings, in which the soldiers awake gasping and choking,—it being the practice in too many barracks to make the ground-floor rooms the dormitories. At mid-day, the stench reeks up under the sun; and at sunset the mists gather again round the sickening soldiery, who dread the sufferings of the night. If openings to the outer air exist, the men close them, to stop out the smell; and by morning they are sick with the foulness of their close rooms. When they can, they spread their beds in verandahs,—the only effect of which is to expose them to the foul damps, while to those within the air comes laden with the breath and moisture from the bodies of the outer rows of sleepers. Nothing effectual can be done for our troops in India till a thorough drainage has been established for a considerable distance round their stations; and this can be done only by a well-qualified central authority. The wisest commanding officers can only employ native scavengers to remove whatever can be carried away; and some admirable illustrations in Miss Nightingale’s document show how this is done. Two men carry an open tub on a pole between them; or a woman marches from the barracks to the river, or the nearest tank, with a vase on her head, containing as much as she can carry. Under such circumstances, it is only the lowest refuse that is removed; and the water from wash-basins and tubs is poured out on the ground under the windows. If there are drains anywhere near, they are sure to be choked; and if there is a tank, it is used as a sink. When water is wanted during the day, the native servants go for it to the tank,—skimming away the weeds or the floating oil from the surface, and dipping for the water which is to clean the floors, or boil the vegetables for dinner.
This brings us to the topic of Water Supply.
Water must be got from one of three sources;—the tank, or a well, or a river. The tank can seldom or never be guarded from native access;