Duty.
At the Presi-
dency and
Peshawur.
Famine
duties.
Experiments.
Uniform.
Undress cloth-
ing.
Various experiments have been made with a view to devise a satisfactory shoe
(pages 20, 28 and 108), but with no very promising result. The 17th Native In-
fantry, 33rd Native Infantry and 2nd Sikh Infantry, wore native shoes on the
march with benefit, and this practice is frequently adopted. This fact of itself
demonstrates the practical imperfection of the present system.
No change has occurred during the year in the uniform of the native
army, which is unanimously pronounced as suited to the climate and duties.
The native, or undress clothing worn by the men when off duty, is by many officers
considered to afford inadequate protection against cold, and this is put down as
a cause of chest disease, especially on the Punjab Frontier. The complaint is
made mainly regarding Madras regiments stationed in Central India and the
regiments garrisoning the Punjab and its frontier. The reports show, however,
that medical officers are fully alive to this important matter, and that, in
concert with regimental authorities, measures are adopted to induce the
sepoys to provide themselves with a sufficiency of warm clothing and to
supply it to those (recruits and married men) who are unable to supply
themselves.
The Duffla
Expedition.
22. Duty is still noted as being very heavy at Fort William, Alipore, and
Barrackpore, at Peshawur, and in the regiments stationed in Rajputana and
Central India, which have to furnish many escorts and detachments. Else-
where the work required of sepoys is by no means severe. The famine in
Behar was the occasion of an increase of labor directly to the troops which
were employed there, and indirectly to the regiments from which the detach-
ments were drawn, which had to perform the same duties with diminished num-
bers. It does not appear that men were anywhere subjected to exposure or
fatigue which could not fairly be held to constitute justifiable conditions of the
occupation of soldiery.
23. Full details regarding the Duffla Expedition—the only war service
which occurred during the year—are given in the excellent report, submitted by
Deputy Surgeon-General J. T. C. Ross, which is printed as an appendix to this
volume. Records of this description have been found to be of great practical
utility in arranging for similar services, the experience of each successive
campaign increasing the sum of valuable information. Good reports were
also submitted concerning their special charges by Surgeon-Major J . B. White,
and Surgeons W. N. Keefer and E. Bovill, but these it has not been considered
necessary to reproduce, as Mr. Ross's carefully constructed digest comprises all
that it appears necessary to print.
Hospital ac-
commodation.
Defective
arrangements.
Regimental schools are alluded to in some reports ; but the
information on the subject is very scanty, and though mental occupation con-
stitutes an important condition of healthy existence, the subject, as affecting
the native army, is not one for detailed discussion in a medical and sanitary
report.
25. The important subject of hospital accommodation and proper ar-
rangements for the treatment of the sick naturally occupies a prominent
position in the reports of executive medical officers and in the inspection
reports of administrative officers. The native army may be pronounced to be,
on the whole, favorably circumstanced as respects provision for the sick,
though defects still exist, and many improvements tending to the convenience
of medical officers and the comfort of the sick might be indicated. The hos-
pital arrangements for the native infantry regiment at Benares are still in-