Observations on the evidence contained in the stational reports submitted to her by the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India / by Florence Nightingale.

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the evidence contained in the stational reports submitted to her by the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India / by Florence Nightingale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    populations to be ' healthy,' or ' remarkably healthy,' and then give a list of every disease that flesh, under defective civilisation^ is heir to, to which they are subject endemically or epidemically. What must be the state of health of the natives when 'unhealthy?' One remark, or rather inference, viz. native ' caste' prejudices appear to have been made the excuse for European laziness, as far as regards our sanitary and hospital neglects of the natives. Kecent railroad experience is a striking proof that ' caste,' in their minds, is no bar to inter-communication in arrange- ments tending to their benefit. Sir C. Trevelyan justly says that a good sanitary state of the military force cannot be secured without making similar arrangements for the populations settled in and around the military cantonments; that sanitary reform must be generally introduced into India for the civil as well as the military portion of the community; that now is the time, for not only has the subject been worked out by actual experi- ment in England, but the improved financial state of India, the increased influx of Europeans, especially of engineers and mechanics, and the powers of local legislation lately conferred upon the subordinate governments, have given facilities which never existed before. The sanitary arrangements for towns will be conducted by municipal bodies, for the creation of which there is already a very good Act of the Govern- ment of India. The mere passing of such an Act presupposes the impotence of ' caste' prejudices ; and nobody who G