Conservancy.
Horse
litter.
Nullahs.
Latrines.
Primitive
system objec-
tionable.
3rd Regiment,
Punjab
Infantry.
9th Regiment
Bengal
Cavalry, at
Deolee.
x
and Miners' lines at Roorkee, it is stated that there is a great deal of solar
evaporation when silt or badly constructed culverts choke the out-fall. Whether
the heavy rain which occurred on the 10th of May, and the after evaporation.
under a powerful sun, may have tended to cause the cholera which broke out
on the 14th of the same month, and continued for 10 days, is a point worthy
of consideration, though the medical officer considers there was no
connexion between the disease and those electrical storms. At Gauhati,
the lines are situated in the centre of a low swampy tract of ground,
from which there is no natural drainage, and the artifical substitute for it is
described as being as imperfect as can well be imagined. The subsoil water
throughout the station is at no greater depth than one or two feet from the
surface. The medical officer of the 25th Regiment, Bengal Infantry, at Meean
Meer, considers that the sickness in the regiment was caused by the heavy
r a i nf a l l of Oc t obe r , Nove mbe r , a nd e a r l y pa r t of De c e mbe r , c onj oi ne d wi t h
defective drainage. Wet encamping grounds along the line of march of the
4th Goorkhas to the Delhi camp were, along with the effects of climate,
considered to have been the cause of a good deal of sickness in the regiment.
The fever cases which occurred in the 5th Regiment, Bengal Light Infantry, at
Meerut, were considered to have been caused by the swampy condition of some
ground close by the lines after the rains. The lines of the 17th Native Infantry
at Morar, situated between the confluence of the Morar and Biswas rivers, are
considered to be unhealthy.
32. All the reports tend to show that the conservancy of cantonments and
regimental lines was carefully attend to; this is what might be expected, as,
independently of the interest which commanding officers take in the neat
appearance and general cleanliness of their lines, all matters that require
removal by the conservancy establishment generally attract notice. The
horse litter in cavalry regiments can, as a rule, be disposed of to zemindars
for manure; but where this cannot be done, it should, as is the practice in some
stations, be burned.
Nullahs in or near cantonments generally become the receptacles for filth
of all kinds; their sides are overgrown with jungle, and except in very dry
weather, or in very dry climates, they generally contain a greater or smaller
quantity of stagnant and very filthy water; these nullahs on this account
require constant supervision, otherwise they may, in all probability, become
causes of sickness.
33. The conservancy of latrines appears to have been very carefully
attended to, but still a great deal remains to be done in this direction. It
appears from the reports that in many of the stations in the North-West and
North-East Frontiers, in Central and perhaps here and there in stations
occupied by the line regiments, the men follow the primitive system of
visiting the adjacent jungle or cultivation for necessary purposes; and though
restrictions may have been imposed on them as to the distance they should
go to, and the locality they should frequent, yet the following extracts will
tend to prove that this primitive system, which still has many supporters, is,
to say the least of it, a most objectionable one, if it may not be also prejudicial.
The medical officer of the 3rd Punjab Infantry, stationed at Edwardesabad,
reports that the men have to resort to the cultivated fields which come to
within 50 yards of the fort; these emit a constant stench, generally more per
- c e p t i b l e i n t h e e v e n i n g , a n d i t i s c o n s i d e r e d t h a t t h e s t a t i o n c a n n o t b e c o m e
even tolerably healthy "so long as it continues to lie in an atmosphere of
fœcal miasm."
Surgeon-Major R. Mantell, when commenting on the increase Of sickness
the 9th. Regiment, Bengal Cavalry, since its arrival in Deolee from Rawal Pindi,
remarks that the only way he can account for it "is by the insanitary condi-
tion of the station and its surroundings; there are no latrines, and the con-
servancy arrangements are very defective." The immediate neighbourhood of
cantonments is often offensive in the extreme, and as the system (that natives
should clear the cantonment boundary for necessary purposes) has been in
practice for the last 18 years, the ground has become polluted, "and it is hardly
a new idea to imagine that this condition of the soil, under climatic influences,
produces a contamination of the air, which may, and surely does, give rise to