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The analyses also prove that in every instance the water taken from the
ghurrás, which the prostitutes are by order compelled to keep in their houses,
was in every station most impure, and they also show how deleterious are the
beverages usually sold to the soldier in the bázárs, and that as a rule the
native population living in Sadar Bázárs or in native villages habitually drink
impure water.
Food.
The insufficiency of the present authorized ration in India, especially for
young growing soldiers, has lately been the subject of much earnest consideration
and action on the part of the Military authorities and of the Government of
Bombay, whose recommendations on this point, if sanctioned by the Government
of India, will, without doubt, have the most marked influence in the preservation
of the health of the men; and I may perhaps venture to say that I regard this
action on the part of Government as the most important advance that has been
made in matters affecting the wellbeing of the British soldier in India since the
days of Lord Napier.
The Army Sanitary Commission says :—" We welcome this expression of
opinion as the first authoritative statement which has yet come to us from India
on a subject which lies at the root of efficiency there." Under existing arrange-
ments it is no uncommon thing, as pointed out by the Surgeon General, Her
Majesty's Forces, for a soldier to go from the dinner meal at 1-30 P.M. one day to
8 A.M. of the following morning without any solid food in his stomach; and al-
though in most regiments, I believe in all, men can obtain food which is served
out just after going on night guard, they do not get what is so much wanted—food
at mid-night—so that they are most liable to be attacked, if exposed to disease-
producing causes, during the very- hours when the vital powers are at their
lowest point of resistance.
His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, as stated in Government Resolution,
Military Department, No. 166, dated 11th January 1883, concurs in opinion with
the Surgeon General, Her Majesty's Forces, that the present scale of rations to
European Troops is insufficient, and that an increase thereto is absolutely neces-
sary to secure four meals a day to the soldier, viz:—
A small meal before morning parade.
Breakfast.
Dinner.
Tea or supper.
I tried to find out how many men availed themselves of the coffee shops
to buy extra food, but this information could not be supplied correctly. It is
however certain that very many men do so, more I think in the Artillery
than in the Infantry, probably on account of their heavier work; but it is
equally certain that many men do not spend anything on extra food, but either
save their money or spend it in liquor, &c.
In order that there may be no doubt as to the correctness of the views of
the Government of Bombay as to the insufficiency of the soldier's ration,
I thought it would be well to ask the Chemical Analyser to Government to
favour me with his opinion as to the nutritive value of the authorized ration, and
to compare it with the scale allowed to men of the Royal Navy serving in
the Bast Indies. The following letter from Staff Surgeon Ridout, R. N.,
H. M. S. Tourmaline, and the able report of Surgeon Milne, Acting Chemical
Analyser to Government, will be read with much interest :—