150
SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
34. The trial of asphalte for flooring the civil hospital at Aden has been sanctioned
by Government, and doubtless a favourable result will accrue ; if so, the material should be
introduced generally into all hospitals—European and native—where white ants are found,
extended three feet upon the walls, which latter will avoid unsightly expectorations, &c.
35. I do not hold with the usual cry of " bad lines for the sepoy " provided by Govern-
Sepoy lines.
ment ; since in the majority of these men, it was harder lines in
their own gaums in this respect before enlistment I presume.
36. With few exceptions, and these have been the subject of complaint and should meet
with early response, the several arms of the service are very comfortably lodged in cabins
suited to their wants and habits, and no complaints reached me when inspecting ; and I may
add I was satisfied also.
37. The sepoy desires a dark dwelling, it is his privacy ; and he would seem to have a
soul above ventilation ; and so long as the smoke passes through the projecting gables and roof
of his hut he is as contended as the Irishman in his peat-smoky cabin, with his family and pigs,
and quite as healthy.
38. It is usual with medical officers to complain of the effect of certain climates after a
Climate in regard to
health or otherwise of
regiments.
residence of three years at a station ; but I think it will be found that
regiments during the first year of arrival suffer more than in after
years, owing naturally to acclimatization or mutual accommodation.
This was my experience at Aden.
39. In some distant stations native regiments are reported to improve in physique by
length of service ; at others, not favourites, complaints are rife, through medical officers' reports
and the press, from periods of arrival till departure ; yet we seldom hear of such from Poona,
Nagar, Belgaum, or others adjacent ; nor are differences of opinion infrequent among medical
officers in the same cantonments, in reference to healthy status, water-supply, &c.
40. With regard to the effect of this at different stations on the physique of men, I lean
to the belief that the thermometer is too frequently resorted to as a
guide, since in some the atmosphere is dry, and, consequently affects
the instruments more readily than in humid climes, though in the latter the system suffers
largely by enervation, and, consequently, becomes more liable to disease.
41. I am no great admirer of, nor believer in, the excellence of the Sanitary Department.
Temperature.
Conservancy.
and its recent introduction of Trench privies for sepoys and their
families, have not changed my views.
42. The old system of pans and dry-earth, in properly built buildings, these last at no
small expense to the State, was considered an effective one ; the present is filthy, immoral, and
degrading, at least in the system I saw adopted during my tour, and reverses the origin of
the nomenclature—privacy.
43. I put it to sanitary commissioners how they would like their families to be subject
to such a system.
44. In garrisons like Aden and Sind, where the rainfalls—save at times—are scant and
irregular, such a system, if properly carried out, may answer, but not without a special esta-
blishment even at these.
45. The Chinese, the best cultivators in the world, are far beyond us in the utilizing of
human effete ; but they remove all such deposits quickly, following their objects with a basket,
as native women and children do herds ; only the former are the servants of contractors who
convert all such collections into a liquid, and by this method their lands are manured.
46. The odour is not at first pleasant, yet this rapidly wears off, and the result fine
crops.
47. I am not sure that the celebrated Mahabuleshwer potatoes and delicious straw-
berries which visitors delight to revel in, are not so treated by the Chinese tillers of the soil
at that charming retreat, available alone to the few.
Special hospitals.
Lock.
48. These should have been placed last on the list when dwell-
ing on hospitals in general ; yet I could not stay progress in my
general report, being already late, by reason of the non-receipt of the
Ahmedabad report which reached this office on the last day of
February.
49. The only approach to an appropriate hospital of this description within the two
divisions is confined to Mhow, and the report of Dr. Thorold is complete.
50. The other hospitals are make-shifts and the establishments not so complete ; and the
chief difficulty in carrying out the Contagious Disease Act appears in the want of unity between
the civil and military authorities.