Medical Officers of the Army of India.
This leads us to the question of the sanitation of troops on the march and
in camp. The annals of route-marching in India, involving frequently the use of
the same camping site by successive regiments at short intervals, are rich in
records of epidemics. In these camps we have every source of pollution of the
soil, by badly arranged and badly conserved latrines, by want of care in trench
- i n g , b y a c c u m u l a t i o n o f w a s t e l i q u i d s a n d d e c a y i n g o r g a n i c m a t t e r . I f w e l o o k
at the medical history of the campaign in South Africa, all this and its results is
brought home to us in the terrible figures of mortality and sickness from (chiefly)
bowel diseases. If we wish for peace we must prepare for war, and to be ready
for war we must prepare in time of peace. The subject is too vast for discus
-sion at the conclusion of an ephemeral paper, but one thing is evident. We
must expect more from our medical officers than valour in the front line and
surgical skill in the field and base hospitals ; each regimental unit must have
its sanitary preventive patrol or vedette, which should be mounted, and to this
end some of the more intelligent men must be trained in peace. Half of this
sanitary guard should precede the regiment on the march, and half should follow
after taking all measures to conserve and disinfect the camp. The Medical Service
should have an independent transport entirely at its disposal. The whole subject
is beset by difficulties when forced marches in a campaign have to be undertaken,
but that is no reason why they should be shirked, and this matter is one of the
most pressing in the whole question of military reform. The Russians in 1877
made a determined and successful effort in this direction, by the formation of a
sanitary corps ; but it must be insisted that adequate organization and training
can only profitably be instituted during peace, and that officers and men should
co-operate to this end.
It would lead to good results, slow but sure, if simple, "plain talks," with the
men accompanied by simple demonstrations, were made part of the duty of officers.
But beyond this, systematic instruction of selected non commissioned officers
and men should certainly be instituted. If this is held to be necessary in the
subjects of agriculture and dairy-farming, the case is far stronger for a new
departure on similar lines in the matter of training in the essentials of practical
hygiene. Sanitary reform can only be accomplished by the establishment of a
subordinate staff competent to maintain a high standard in the details of the
Work. Let liberal inducements be offered in the way of staff allowances, etc.,
and then secure the services of competent men of high character by the test of
examination after careful instruction, and no more promising investment of public
funds could possibly be made.
While generally aiming at the removal of those conditions in the environ
- m e n t u p o n w h i c h d i s e a s e c a u s e s d e p e n d f o r t h e i r p r o p a g a t i o n a n d s p r e a d ,
something more may be done in the destruction of these pathogenic agents when
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