Indian hygiene and demography.

  • International Congress of Hygiene and Demography
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Indian hygiene and demography. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    and to take the greatest care to protect the body from comparative cold and damp, which, especially in the form of colder nigh air, dew, drench- ing rain, and sndden changes of temperature, acting on a skin much excited and consequently debilitated by heat and perspiration, constitutes, if not the dreaded malaria, an influence quite as injurious. Lastly, I think the station hospital system is a mistake. The soldier, and particuhirly the yoTing soldier, should have the medical ofiicer’s eyes constantly upon him. And this is not ]:>ossible, unless there are regimental medical officers. In India especially, early atten- tion to slight ailments is required. An attack of fever, or of other maladies may sometimes be prevented. But soldiers will not apply to station hospitals, with the free<lom that they did to regimental hospitals. In conclusion, I venture to reiterate a proposal, and the reasons for such proposal, already brought forward in the “ British Medical Journal,” and in the last number of the “ Asiatic Quarterly Eeview.” The mortality of young soldiers has already been referred to. But under conditions of climate exactly similar, men, by reason of their different temperaments and constitutions, suffer in very varying manners. Some individuals feel tropical heat intensely, while others seem scarcely annoyed thereby. There are some who suffer acutely from insomnia, consequent on the heat, the noises, and the nuisances of the tropical night; and there are others who keep well under almost any disturbing influences. Some people flourish and grow fat in the tropics (not, • however, always a sign of health), Avhile others grow pallid, weak, and thin. Some seem malaria proof; others are con- stantly suffering from more or less severe attacks of malarial fever. In short, there are some individuals who enjoy life and flourish in a tropical climate, at least for a time, who like the life, and who would be willing to remain if sufficient inducement were offered. Doubtless these people are to some extent the survival of the fittest; and they may be credited with more than the average vis vitce, with prudence in life, with acquired knowledge of how to take care of themselves in the different circumstances in which they may be placed, and with freedom from disease. These are precisely the men required as soldiers in India; and these are the men who are so frequently sent home as time-expired soldiers, or when their regiments receive the order for Europe. What I venture to suggest as a tentative measure, is the formation of one European regiment in each Presidency for prolonged service in India. Into these regiments only men fitted as above sketched should be admitted, their period of service to extend until they became, from any cause, unfitted for duty. It should be recol- lected, that even in the tropics, some men are as young, physically and mentall}', as others 10 years less in age. Free concessions should be made in the matters of pay, pension, and furlough. Any extra expen- diture would certainly be more than counterbalanced by greater freedom from sickness, the loss of service involved for every soldier attacked by a bad form of fever averaging six months before he is fit for full duty. The diminished death-rate would also save a large sum, calculated at nearly 200/., which every man who dies costs the State. There would be a lessened expenditure in the item of conveying invalids to Europe,