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sion that healthy, fully formed soldiers should alone be sent on service to warm
climates. It appears to be the conviction in Algeria that the best age for a sol-
dier to arrive in the country is 25".
I fear that under existing conditions of short service this course may not
be possible. But I certainly think that no men under the age of 22 ought to be
sent to India, and even if this were done, their liability to attack would for the
first three years of their service in India still be great.
The sanitary condition of the troop-ships is a matter of the most vital im-
portance, and in my opinion a special report should be made, on each occasion, be-
fore they leave England or India. I have no means of knowing whether this is
now done; but in case it is not, I urge the importance of this course being pursued.
The troop decks, &c., should be thoroughly fumigated with nitrous acid or
chlorine before troops are taken on board; and it should be remembered, as
Dr. Blyth points out, that "chemical gases will act better in the presence of
moisture than in the dry state. On this account Dr. Budd has proposed, that
when a room is to be disinfected, a little time before the disinfection a tub of
boiling water should be placed in it, so that the steam may wet the walls and
air, as he thinks there is a danger of gaseous disinfectants not destroying the
germs if they are in a dry state".
The next point is that regiments on first arrival should be sent to selected
stations.
I strongly recommend that all young soldiers under the age of 25 be sent,
on first arrival, to a hill station. Bombay is in my opinion treated somewhat un-
fairly in this respect; in Bengal and also in Madras there are hill stations to
which European troops can be sent; but though we have sites in this Presidency
second to none, yet there is no station in the hills for our British soldiers,
and the accommodation at our so-called hill sanitaria is very limited.
General Sir Robert Phayre, when Quarter Master General of the Army as
long ago as 1862, recommended Mundurdeo as a fitting place for the location
of troops. I have never been there, but from General Phayre's admirable report
I have no doubt it would form an excellent site. In my opinion too the neigh-
bouring spur, Pánchgani, would also be a convenient and good site; and we
know that it is healthy, as Europeans have for many years past continuously lived
there all the year round. Although only 12 miles distant from Mahábaleshvar
where the rain-fall is 237 inches, the annual fall of rain at Pánchgani is only 56
inches.
If all young soldiers on first arrival in the country were kept at Pánchgani
for their first three years of residence they would be placed under favourable
conditions to escape disease, and would become acclimatized and therefore better
able to resist it on going down for service in the plains.
In such a climate they could be made to work without danger to their
health. There would be no reason why they should not be employed, as the
French soldiers are in Algeria, in the execution of public works, such as sub-soil
draining the site, in building barracks and making roads, in cooking their own
food, in washing their clothes, &c., and, in fact, in doing everything for themselves,
and thus surely in becoming more efficient soldiers. It may be said that the Bri-
tish soldier is not enlisted to perform such work; but if up to this time he has
not been, it is no reason why for the future he should not in this respect be as-
similated to soldiers in continental armies.
In any military settlement on the hills the greatest care should be taken to
limit the public followers to the very least number of men whose services are ab-
solutely required. No native woman should be allowed to live within the canton-
ment without a pass from the Officer Commanding, Among such, I fear, it would
be absolutely necessary to include a few licensed prostitutes; and in laying it
out a point which has so frequently been neglected in existing canton-
ments, viz., its possible extension in future times, should be borne in mind. A
co-operative store under the management of an especially selected non-commis-
sioned officer might advantageously supply the place of a Sadar Bázár.