# Advice to Officers in India

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ADVICE
TO
OFFICERS IN INDIA.
BY
JOHN McCOSH, M.D.,
GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, EDINBURGH. MEMBER OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, LONDON. LATE OF THE BENGAL MEDICAL STAFF.
LONDON: Wm H. ALLEN & CO., 7, LEADENHALL STEEET 1856.
W. Lewis and Son, Printers, 21, Finch Lane, Cornhill
TO
The Most Noble the Marquis of Dalhousie, K.G.,
LATE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA,
THIS BOOK
IS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION DEDICATED, AS A TRIBUTE
OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM, BY
THE AUTHOR.
Preface
The first edition of this book was published when I was last in England, about fifteen years ago, and many a time since my return to duty, I have been gratified at finding it in the libraries of young officers, as a parting gift from affectionate relations. With a sincere desire to render it still more worthy of confidence and adapt it to the changes of the times, I have added line upon line and precept upon precept, till it is now nearly double its original size.
I have had much experience and seen much service during my career in India; indeed no Surgeon has seen more; and have experienced all its vicissitudes of climate, from the snowy mountains of the Kybur, to the tepid marshes of Burmah. I have performed the duties of ​various civil stations, and of Professor in the Calcutta Medical College; I have served with Native Infantry and Irregular Cavalry, been Surgeon of a regiment of European Fusiliers, and of a batallion of European Artillery; I was Staff Surgeon to General Gilbert during the Punjaub campaign, and Staff Surgeon to General Godwin during the late Burmese war; I have served throughout four campaigns, been present in nine general actions, received four honorary decorations, viz. Maharajpore, Chilianwalla, Goojerath, Pegu, and twice received the public thanks of the governor General in Council for services in the field.
With such opportunities for observation, and an ambition to benefit a service in which I have spent the best twenty-five years of my life, I have endeavoured to put a useful guide into the hands of Military as well as Medical officers during their years of inexperience; to put a guide into the hands of older officers, to enable them to recover their broken health at some of the numerous sanataria within the Indian limits, (for I also have ​experienced the blessings of renewed health at such resorts after sickness prolonged beyond hope of recovery,) and I have further ventured to throw out some hints for the consideration of Government, professional as well as extra professional, which may be found worthy of adoption.
I have indeed done my best to render this advice sound and worthy of confidence, in the hope of its being favoured with a welcome reception. Such a compilation must therefore be more or less heterogeneous, but I have endeavoured to avoid the inconveniencies of miscellaneous matter by a careful classification, and an attempt to put the right article into the right place.
J. M$^c$COSH, M.D.
London, 1st July, 1856.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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