xii
Improvements
required.
Drainage.
Conservancy.
Water.
Rough
analyses.
separate from the barrack huts are reported to be ill-constructed and overcrowd-
ed ; and, as many of the men spend a large portion of their time there, this
condition must operate prejudicially on their health. The principal indications
for improving the quarters of sepoys are—(1) raising the floors ; (2) giving suffi-
cient superficial and cubic space ; (3) preventing accumulation of inmates when
married men are allowed to have their families with them ; (4) providing for
ventilation by a sufficiency of judiciously placed openings ; (5) adding verandahs,
and planting trees for shelter and shade. The lines of the 17th Native Infantry
at Morar, of the 9th and 26th Native Infantry at Meean. Meer, and of the 15th
Native Infantry at Sialkot, appear to be exceptionally bad. Some of the
Native Infantry lines at Peshawar are also capable of improvement. The troops
at Quetta and the 44th Infantry at Shillong were engaged in constructing
huts at the close of the year.
18. As regards drainage there is not much new to report. Nowhere,
except in Calcutta, has any system of subsoil drainage been attempted; but
regimental and station authorities are fully alive to the importance of re-
moving and preventing the stagnation of surface water. In 1877, owing to
the deficiency of rain, drainage arrangements were not subjected to any
severe trial ; but it is important to remember that, when the surface is very
level and porous, saturation and stagnation may take place without apparent
lodgment, and that very shallow drains suffice to collect even a light fall
into channels, provided they are sufficiently numerous and properly placed. In
some stations, such as Segowlie, Ferozepore, Sialkot, Meean Meer, Mooltan,
and the frontier stations along the Derajat, special difficulties exist from
back and overflow, which it is not easy to remedy. In Meerut a general system
of drainage is in process of construction, which will, it is hoped, materially
improve the health of the station.
19. The arrangements for conservancy are very much as previously re-
ported. The trench system of latrines continues to work satisfactorily where
suitable conditions exist. The cultivation of the trenched ground, which is
an important part of the system, appears to be more generally carried out.
The system has been extended somewhat during the year, and has now been
adopted at some of the Central India stations where the " field system " was
formerly the practice. This system has now been very properly superseded
in the great majority of regiments by either the " dry-earth" or " trench" sys-
tem. Some medical officers complain that the mat, screens which are used in
some stations are flimsy, and soon get out of order. A substantial wooden box
on rollers, such as is in use by the Sappers and Miners at Roorkee, appears to
be the best arrangement, or a similar construction of galvanized iron sheets,
as in the 34th Native Infantry at Allahabad. The dry-earth latrine system has
been improved by the issue of glazed in place of porous gumlahs. The burying
of the material in shallow trenches appears to be the best method of disposal ;
but the ground so utilized ought to be cultivated, as in the trench system.
The system of removing the material in Crawley carts, and discharging it into
the Calcutta sewers, which is pursued at Alipore, is approvingly reported on.
Various suggestions have been made regarding details of latrine construction,
which show that this important subject is being carefully worked. Urinals,
which are so conducive to comfort and cleanliness, have been established in the
lines of several regiments, and I am of opinion that the use of these should become
universal.
20. Attention continues to be devoted by medical officers to the purity of
drinking and cooking water. Under the orders of Government, it has now be-
come the duty of medical officers to make an annual " rough analysis " of potable
waters in cantonments. The result of this is embodied. in the Cantonment
Annual Report (Military Department letter No. 341, dated 19th September 1877).
Such an analysis, if coupled with an examination of the sources, physical charac-
ters, liabilities to contamination, and apparent effect on health of potable waters,
will in most cases suffice to determine their quality with sufficient accuracy
for practical purposes. Medical officers are specially instructed and trained
in water analysis at Netley, and ought to be quite competent to pronounce on
the general qualities of water. If any reason appears for a more detailed and
minute analysis, as in the case of the 16th Madras Native Infantry at
J u b b u l - p o r e , t h e 1 8 t h N a t i v e I n f a n t r y a t B u x a , a n d t h e 4 3 r d A s s a m L i g h t I n f a n t r y .