Sanitary.
54
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF MADRAS.
This table indicates similar phenomena in Bellary to those noted in Bangalore, namely, a
high temperature with a rainfall above the average. The rain collected amounted to 26.51
inches, being about 8 or 9 above the average for this station. It fell on 71 days of the year
and filled all the tanks. A heavy fall late in the season did considerable damage to the dry
crops in the north and west of the district. The crops were also injured by locusts and other
insects which appeared this year in great numbers in the Bellary and Cuddapah Districts
.
Sanitary .—The military stations in this administrative circle are Bangalore, Bellary,
French Rocks, and Mercara. Detachments of troops are also quartered at Mysore and
Kurnool. The sanitary condition of the sepoy lines is on the whole good, though still far
from perfect. The defects of the huts in which the sepoys and their families reside have
already been pointed out on former occasions. The improved lines and huts still in process of
construction for the 36th Regiment N.I. at Bangalore will, it is hoped, be taken as the
model for any others which may hereafter be required. The new huts for the Left Wing
of the 28th Native Infantry at Mercara have withstood a second monsoon in a satisfactory
manner, but in such a climate as that of Coorg a better style of hut is even more necessary
than either in Bangalore or Bellary.
It is in contemplation to erect new lines for the Right Wing of the 4th Light Cavalry at
Bellary, and they are very much wanted; for the present lines are the oldest in the station and
are irregular in plan and too near the native bazaar. The sapper lines at Bangalore are well
constructed and well drained and conserved, but they are too limited for the accommodation of
the whole corps, and consequently many men with their families are obliged to reside in the
bazaar exposed to the insanitary evils which are abundantly rife in that thickly-peopled part
of the town. The lines have been somewhat extended during the last year by adding more
huts at their northern ends, but this only lessens and does not remove the inconveniences.
The new project for a supply of water to Bangalore does not appear to have made much
progress during the latter half of the year, and at present the works seem to be at a stand
- s t i l l . T h i s i s t o b e r e g r e t t e d , f o r a l l t h e t a n k s i n B a n g a l o r e w e r e d r i e d u p d u r i n g t h e
last hot season. Independently of this inconvenience, which is not likely to recur often, I
consider that a supply of purer water than that of the Ulsoor Tank, on which the European
troops are mostly dependent, is very desirable. I am aware that the Official Analyst has
reported favorably of that water ; but, knowing as I do the sources from which it is derived, I
shall hail with great satisfaction the completion of a scheme which will provide Bangalore
with water unmixed with drainage of native burying-grounds, filthy villages, populous bazaars,
a n d s e p o y l i n e s . Ba n g a l o r e n o t b e i n g a Mi l i t a r y Ca n t o n me n t i n t h e s t r i c t s e n s e o f t h e wo r d ,
its general conservancy arrangements are in charge of the Municipality whose means are not
commensurate with its obligations. Its bye-laws are excellent and seem to provide a remedy
for every contingency, but as laws do not execute themselves, and there is no proper sanitary
police, its provisions and prohibitions are habitually neglected and often openly violated.
Barracks and
guard rooms
Barracks and guard rooms .—The barracks of native regiments are not inhabited. They
are used as places of arms, store-rooms, &c. The Quarter Guard usually occupies one or more
rooms in the barracks. In some, as in those of the 36th and 23rd Regiments N.I. at Banga
-lore, the sleeping accommodation for the guard is insufficient, but as the men usually prefer
to sleep in the verandahs, no practical inconvenience arises from this. The defaulter's room in
the Quarter Guard is sometimes floored, with stone-granite most frequently, and as a prisoner is
liable to be confined there for as long as three months, I have always recommended that a
movable wooden platform should be provided for him to sleep on. Both at Bangalore and
Bellary the nights are sometimes very cold, and I consider that a man's health is endangered
by compelling him to sleep, even for a single night, on a granite floor with nothing between him
and the stone but his great coat or bit of carpet, much more when he has to do so for many
nights in succession. Injury to his health is no part of the authorised punishment of a prisoner,
but I have no doubt that, as practically carried out, it is often a consequence of it. In civil
jails the condemned cells alone are provided with stone floors. That they should be found in
military lock-up rooms and solitary cells may be due to the abundance of stone in certain
localities, and perhaps also in some degree to the professional aversion of Engineers to "Petty
Repairs" which occasionally finds expression in constructions that look as if they were
designed not so much for the present time as for those 'who will call the present time anti
- q u i t y . '
Solitary cells.
Solitary cells.— The solitary cells are on the standard plan and are clean and well ventilated.
Those of the Sappers and Miners at Bangalore have stone floors, but they have been providently
furnished with movable wooden platforms for the prisoners to sleep on. As a man can only
be confined in the solitary cell for seven days consecutively, but may, as I have been told, be
three months in the defaulter's room which is also floored with stone, it is strange that a similar
provision has not been made for the care of his health when confined in. the latter place where
it is even more necessary. The sepoys on guard in the outer room are allowed cots to lie on,
a distinction which seems to imply that to lie on a granite bed is an integral part of a prisoner's
punishment.
I may be wrong, but it is my belief that Commanding Officers have no more right to
condemn a prisoner to lie on a granite floor than they have to stop up the ventilator which a