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 into which all the filth on the neighbouring surface may at any time be washed by the rains; or from shallow wells, dug in unwholesome or doubtful soil. So simple a piece of mechanism as a pump is unknown. Water is drawn in skins, carried in skins on the backs of men or bullocks, and poured into any sort of vessels in the barracks for use. The quantity of water is utterly insufficient for health, and as to the quality, the less said about that, the better. There is no reason to hope that any station has what in this country would be called a pure water supply. And at some it is to be feared that, when men drink water, they drink cholera with it.

The construction of barracks, where men have to pass their whole period of service, is another illustration of how completely home civilisation is reversed in India. All our best soldiers have been brought up in country cottages. And when in barracks at home, there are rarely more than from twelve to twenty men in a room. But as soon as the soldier comes to India he is put into a room with 100, or 300, and, in one case, with as many as 600 men. Just when the principle of sub-division into a number of detached barracks becomes of, literally, vital importance, the proceeding is reversed. And the men are crowded together under circumstances certain, even in England, to destroy their health.

To take another illustration:—Our home British population is about the most active in the world. In fact we in this country consider exercise and