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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    As regards army prostitution, there is, as I have said, the same helplessness as with army drunkenness. It is apparently never considered that they are both parts of the same vice, and that, so far as human agency is concerned, they both spring from the same causes. India has its licensed ' lal bazaars,' and its licensed spirit selling. And both are encouraged to the utmost by leaving the men utterly without rational employment for their time. The 'lal bazaar' and the canteen both send men into hospital in abun- dance. While, instead of confronting both evils with the strong arm, and providing men with useful occupations and manly amusements, Government sets up lock hospitals under its authority, and makes ineffectual attempts to stop drunkenness by keeping the supply of drink, as far as it can, in its own' hands, and so encouraging the evil by its own authority. The authority of Government is avouched for both evils. So long as this is the case, they will extend and flourish, and the taxpayers in India and England will have to bear the cost. XII. Statistics. All that can be said under this head is, that the .statistical abstracts of sickness and mortality for the European troops of the Indian army afford no data of sufficient accuracy to enable us to judge of the sanitary state of the troops, while they are defective in some most important data required for estimating the exact sanitary condition of the stations. Practi-