4. -BARRACKS are in convents and large native houses? and are all 
in bad repair. Ants are so destructive of wood that some floors 
are unsafe. They are all raised 10 or 12 feet from the ground? 
the houses by piles generally? but the convents are stone or brick. 
They are usually situated on the town plasa or nearby? dry up¬ 
stairs but damp below so that*no storage is safe for property. 
Only a few were crowded. All modern barracks should be built with 
a view of excluding the light which we now Know is the harmful agent 
in the tropics. 
5. -BATHING facilities are usually absent, the soldiers using • 
rivers and ocean, in a few places well*are enclosed so that shower 
baths are arranged. The temporary occupancy of posts made it im¬ 
possible to arrange proper bathing facilities. It is interesting 
to note that British experience in India is to the effect that 
cold showers and baths are too stimulating and harmful, while water 
with the chill taken off (tepid) is far preferable. This is a re¬ 
finement unsuited to barracks, but of value to know for officers 
and others having bath tubs. The warm water does not stimulate 
and thus increase the already too pronounced exhaustions. The pro¬ 
per hour is at night after the perspiring is over for the day and 
there is then a clear dry skin all night making the morning bath 
unnecessary. Too much bathing is exhausting. Too much soap re¬ 
moves the protective grease from the skin and causes eruptions 
which ere cured by less bathing, less soap and the use of a little 
oil after the bath. 
6.-BEDDING is the usual cotton sheets and blankets and is 
satisfactory, but it seems to wear out soon. The mattress is of 
course hotter than the native bed, but no one seemed to mind it. 
Pajamas are reported as of inferior quality and worthless. 
7. -BUNKS are satisfactory but very shortlived owing to the rust-, 
ing of metal parts. The gold medal cots are popular and very satis¬ 
factory. 
8 . -BURIAL OP DEAD is in the local cemetery, the usual data being 
enclosed in bottles. There is no permanency to these cemeteries 
as the removal by the burial corps is to follow. 
9. —clothing. Khaki is by all odds the most successful material? 
but in the field the blouse gets entirely too hot and must be 
taken off allowing the soldiers to wear the light weight olue flan¬ 
nel shirt open at the neck so as not to interfere with the circula¬ 
tion; the neck must be free. The canvass legging seems satisfactory 
and needed. This garb - blue s&irt, khaki trowsers, canvass leg¬ 
gings, and tan shoes — seems to survive as the fittest from all 
experiments, and is instinctively used by civilians. To compel^the 
wearing of the blouse when at hard work is harmful to health. It 
would no doubt be better to have a khaki colored flannel shirt and 
under it a thin white cotton knit shirt. The khaki undershirt of 
thin drill is a ghastly failure, hot, wet and sticky. The leather 
leggingfor officers seems to have survived as fittest, as a boot is 
out of question, and though it is too hot there has not been devised 
anything better, unless it be the flannel phfctee bandage used m 
India, which I consider the very best thing for the field for Of¬ 
ficers and soldiers. There must be a change in head gear. The 
campaign hat is the best for the field for it lasts in sun or rain, 
Can be slept in and has survived every test, though the brim should 
be wider and more curved. But it is too hot, keeps the head in a 
continual stew and is a cause of much exhaustion and suffering and 
should be dicarded in garrison, when the field work is over, and 
helmet used is as fountf necessary by three centuries of experience 
of white men in the tropics. We cannot afford to ignore this ex¬ 
perience and must adppt what others have found necessary. To say 
