4
11. The cook-rooms in the rear of the barracks are very light and airy
buildings, and were extremely clean. The Government provide that these rooms
should be lime-washed only twice a year. I do not think this is nearly sufficient ;
and, in my opinion, this cleansing operation should be performed not less than
once a month. I was informed that the want of it was so much felt that the
cook-rooms had been lime-washed at the expense of the regiment. They are
fitted with ovens, and the arrangements appeared good, except that I think the
arches under the fire-places should not be devoted to any other purpose than
that for which they were constructed, namely, the drying of the firewood.
The water used in the cook-house is kept in a wooden cask outside, which is filled
by the bhistie, and into which the dirty hand of the cook and the dirty vessel is
dipped. This is wrong. The water should be poured into an iron tank placed on
a stand outside the cook-room, and should be drawn off through a brass cock.
I a m i n f o r m e d t h a t t h e r e g i m e n t a l a u t h o r i t i e s a r e a n x i o u s t h a t a s h e d f o r s e r v i n g
out the rations should be built. In my opinion such a building is much wanted ;
and it need not be an expensive one, as it would be better to have it open on all
sides. Protection against the rain could best be given by means of weather-
frames. The arrangement regarding the cook-room leavings, also, is not good.
This cutchra is thrown on to a raised stone sink at the back, from which it is
removed, and deposited on the ground outside, in an enclosure the surface of
which has, by constant removal, sunk below the level of the ground. All this refuse
should be placed in an iron vessel which should be bodily removed by a cart, or,
at all events, its contents should be emptied into a cart ; but in this event great
care should be taken to see that it be properly cleaned before it is replaced.
But the most economical and best plan of getting rid of all the liquid slops from
these cook-rooms, and of the ablution-water from the barracks, would be, to lay
down a proper system of glazed stoneware pipes through which these matters
would be carried to a proper out-fall, which in this case would be near the Gov-
ernment Gardens, where the water would be of great value.
12. Another point I wish to lay stress on is, that as the drinking-water for
the European troops is brought into the station in a pure state by the Bhingar
and Shahpur Aqueducts, it is desirable that it should be distributed, not by the
filthy musuck and bhistie's leathern bag—by which it gets tainted—but through
pipes, which could be laid on to each ablution-room and each cook-room, and over
each filter. If this is done, the water should be raised, not by the wasteful and
filthy moat, but by means of a pump. Surely there is no reason why we should
continue to keep up an establishment of bhisties, with all their objectionable
accompaniments, when a force-pump would bring the water in as pure a state as
it is flowing in the aqueducts, up to the very filter in the barracks.
13. There are 2 privies on the standard plan, in which the dry-earth system
is most efficiently and properly carried out. I have never been
i n r e g i m e n t a l p r i v i e s i n w h i c h t h e r e w a s s o l i t t l e o d o u r . T h e o n e o n t h e l e f t f l a n k h a s b e e n
objected to on account of its close proximity to the hospital ; and the complaint
is, in my opinion, a very just one. The greatest difficulty, however, is experi-
enced in selecting another suitable site.
14. The Quarter Guard in front of the lines, to the west of the road, is a
good, and would be a well-ventilated, building if the clerestory windows were
kept open. The solitary cells are well ventilated.
15. The hospital is on the left flank of the barracks, and is, in my opinion,
utterly unsuited to the purpose, as it is too much shut in by the subsidiary build-
ings ; and it has not been built to face the prevailing breeze in its entire length.
The enclosure is surrounded with a low masonry wall and railing ; and in the
front is situated a building formerly used as a guard-room, but which is now,
from want of space, turned into the office. The Assistant Apothecary's quarters
are to windward of one of the wards, and must shut out the breeze, as the dis-
tance between them and the hospital is only 9 feet. The north ward extends