Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/26

 and can take a quiet canter along the monotonous high-ways and bye-ways of tropical existence. But the possession of a hobby is not enough; they ought to be able to physic their own horses and dogs; to superintend the construction of their own houses and baggage carts; to know how to manage a farm-yard and a garden; how to cook their own dinner; brew their own ale; how to ride and how to drive how to shoot and how to sail; how to calculate their pay in vulgar and decimal fractions; and how to balance the debit and credit side of their accounts to the utmost farthing. The cadet, after having passed a creditable examination as a young soldier, may therefore find he has still a great deal to learn.

If an assistant-surgeon, he must be prepared to practice his profession in the most comprehensive sense of the word: no distinction is made between medicine and surgery. Every medical officer must act in either capacity, as circumstances demand, (which is more reasonable after all than drawing a line between two branches which cannot be separated),and perform the duty of aurist, oculist, accoucheur, chemist, and medical jurist, as occasion presents itself.

A cadet cannot enter the service before sixteen, years of age,nor after twenty-two.

An assistant-surgeon before twenty-two years, nor after twenty-eight.