Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/260

 the east. When an officer unfortunately becomes insane, he is immediately put under careful surveillance, and sent either to the asylum in Calcutta or to Europe; this same surveillance being continued throughout the voyage.

4. LOVE OF CHANGE.—The love of change is inherent in the breasts of all men,and the more it is subjected to it the more it is desired. In fact, a constant change is necessary throughout our whole economy to preserve it in health; in our thoughts, our words,and our actions; our dress, our diet, our manners, and our customs, nay, in the very elements of our bodies, from the hair of our heads and the nads on our fingers, to the valves of the heart and the membranes of the brain;and if this change is suspended, disease in some form or another ensues.

From the nature of service in India,officers are never permanently settled. In the most peaceable times they are every second or third year obliged to migrate, and if longer stationary, they are apt to become weary of their monotonous life,and long again to be on the move. When they become sick, this ruling passion increases; and its good effects being so well scertained, the invalid's desire is to try change of air.

5.MEDICAL CERTIFICATES.—The young Assistant-surgeon should consider the giving a medical certificate a sacred privilege; and be fully