Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/143

 When change of air is thought necessary, the Surgeon's recommendation for leave to visit his home for six or more months is almost always granted; and the invalid generally returns to his regiment in robust health.

10. RECRUITING.—One of the most important duties of medical officers is the examination of recruits, for without their certificate of efficiency no sepoy is enrolled in a regular regiment; and his firmness will often be put to the test by the men of his regiment trying to pass inefficient youths, their relations, into the service. Every recruit should therefore be stripped and carefully examined from head to foot, in private, of course. The natives of the upper provinces from which recruits are chiefly drawn, are not liable to many constitutional disorders unfitting them for arms. Scrofula, that blight of British climate, is little known amongst them. Few races have so little deformity;and young lads of fourteen or sixteen, though tall, slender, and even feminine, provided they are straight and have well-developed chests, will improve wonderfully after having eaten the Company's salt for a year, and turn out effective men.

11. MALINGERING.—This is not a commonpractice amongst sepoys. When such is suspected, the state of the pulse, the temperature of the skin, the colour of the eyes, or of the tongue, (if not a pawn eater) are good guides to a diagnosis. One