Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/152

 '''8. ROUTINE'''.—The amount of official correspondence on all matters of duty is in India very great, but on emergencies in the field these are not invariably exacted. Supplying the wants of the service is the first duty. Official adjustment of accounts the second! For example, when in medical charge of a brigade of troops at the outpost of Sultanporc, Oude, I indented amongst other things for—quinine, and the quantity was sanctioned by the Superintending-surgeon, though only a portion could be spared from the medical depot. I knew that there was plenty of quinine in the private dispensary at Cawnpore, and ordered the remaining portion from it, and forwarded the bill to the proper authorities for payment,and it was paid. Again, on my assuming medical charge of the civil station of Gowhattyr in Assam, I found scurvy epidemic amongst the prisoners, and that many had died of it. In the Kassya Hills, adjoining, limes are indigenous. I bought them by the basketful, served them out as a daily ration to the prisoners, with the most beneficial effect, and was reimbursed by the payment of the contingent bill. Again, after the capture of Rangoon, and before I had access to my hospital stores, cholera broke out in a very violent form, and I had most of my wants supplied from the commissariat only simple receipt roughly written in camp. Had that department acted up to the