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In my opinion the bhistis' musuck should at all events in cantonments be
once and for ever discontinuedand galvanized iron vessels substituted for it, and
for the wooden barrels in cook-rooms, and, as a matter of daily routine, all vessels
used for carrying water should be daily cleaned and regularly inspected every day
by a responsible officer. By present arrangements there is no guarantee that the
bhistis do not use the musucks in which they have carried pure water to the
barracks for the conveyance of water from other sources. It would add much
to the comfort and health of the men if the vessels in which the Macnamara
filters are placed consisted of porous earthenware, like, for example, the large
vessels in use in Turkish Arabia, in which the water becomes by evaporation deli-
ciously cool. I also think the sand in the filters should be supplied by the Execu-
tive Engineer and not by the Commissariat Office. It is not an easy matter to
procure clean river sand near every station, and the Executive Engineer is much
more likely to know where such can be obtained.
The condition of the Sadar Bázárs throughout the Presidency will never
in my opinion be satisfactory until a different system of working the sanitary
clauses of the Cantonment Act is sanctioned.
I venture to say that it is impossible that real practical sanitation can in a
large Sadar Bázár be efficiently carried out with the present cumbrous machinery.
The Cantonment Magistrate is not only the complainant but the Judge; at Karáchi
for some time he was also in charge of the jail, so that he would have had
custody of any person he had committed to prison under Section 29 of the Act
after conviction by himself on a charge he himself had made.
The Cantonment Magistrate under the rules is required "personally
to inspect all parts of the Cantonment at least once a month, especially those
parts of which the sanitary supervision is important, and to require his subor-
dinates frequently to do the same." But this is exactly what I think is not re-
quired. For practical sanitation it is necessary that the officer entrusted with
these duties should be out every day and should inspect the greater portion of
his charge every day. The Cantonment Magistrate's duties are so onerous that
he cannot, however devoted, give that amount of personal supervision which is
so essential.
I also venture to state my opinion that the Officer Commanding the station
should be provided with an executive staff consisting of a Medical Officer of
Health, an Executive Engineer and a Secretary who might be also the Con-
troller of Accounts.
I regard the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health as all-important.
His duties would consist in supervising the sanitary condition of barracks and
regimental lines and in placing himself in communication with the medical officer
in charge of the troops who would keep him informed of the occurrence of any
case of cholera, small-pox, enteric fever, &c., so that he might at once set to work
to trace the cause. This most important duty which requires much time and much
careful investigation now falls on medical officers at the very time when their
presence at hospital is most urgently needed by the patient; and though I bear
most willing testimony to the great zeal they have ever displayed, I am very
fully cognizant of the great demand that is made on them and can well un-
derstand that owing to pressure of curative work they have not in all cases been
ableto spare the time to trace up the antecedent circumstances of each indivi-
dual case; yet, I think, the importance of tracing the previous history of
each enteric patient cannot be over-estimated.
The Health Officer would keep the most rigid supervision over the condi-
tion of the Sadar Bázár and summons an offender against the sanitary clauses
of the Act before the Cantonment Magistrate who would only have magisterial
duties. Speaking as an old Health Officer I can testify to the advantage of there
being an entirely unbiased Magistrate to decide cases on the evidence ad-
duced. He would also have charge of the vital statistics of the station, vaccination,
&c.; and I would propose that he should also be in charge of the Lock Hospital.
One of his chief duties would be to inspect the food supplies and to analyse the
water which the troops use and also that in the bázár, as well as milk and other
beverages sold there. He would inspect the stables where the cows and milch
buffaloes are kept and livery stables, &c. At Poona, for example, the Sadar
B 357-42