Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/156

 grooves and admit of being pulled out in rear and carried like a hand-barrow to a distance to receive a wounded man, and again of being slid bodily into their places. It struck me forcibly that both of these modes of conveyance were admirably adapted for India, the Cacolet on the back of a camel and the Ambulance drawn by bullocks.

There is another very essential article of which hospitals are much in want, and that is a pair of stout compact trunks with compartments for medicines and instruments, to be carried on a bangy by a Cooly. At present these essentials are stowed away in bulk in a pair of petarahs, of all shapes and sizes, often made of basket work. These ought to be of some regulation pattern. Iron would be the best material, and Government could not supply such things so cheap or so efficient as by sending out from England apair of such boxes for every regiment in India. The freight would cost nothing, as they could be filled with articles sent out for the public service.

Much as the transport for the sick in the Crimea excels that in India, so much does our tent system in India surpass the Crimean; and the Indian army may congratulate itself in being the best tented army in the world.

10. PREPARATIONS FOR ACTION.—The