Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/207

 station till he had been two years in the service; but that, from the paucity of assistants so qualified, has been abolished,but a later order, obliging him to vacate his appointment if absent more than six months, even on medical certificate, has not been abolished—a severity of exaction that is imposed on no other commissioned officer in India,and a very strong incentive to him to take care of his own health. 'Tis no trifling matter to find himself, at the end of six months' leave, placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-chief, and be ordered to join a regiment perhaps fifteen hundred miles distant—therefore let him look to himself.

The consolidated pay of a civil Assistant-surgeon is C.R. 300 per month, to which may be added 30 for palanquin and 26 for vaccination, and, if disposed to make himself generally useful,he may have 50 for the duties of postmaster, and, possibly, a little more as register of deeds, and 12½ for every hundred Sepoys committed to his charge; and, if a favourite, he may get a fee now and then for attendance upon the families of Civilians who, by government orders, are obliged to remunerate him for their families, though attendance on them personally is part of his public duty.

He will occasionally be consulted by the natives of the district; and is on such occasions allowed the discretion of supplying them with medicines