443 
THE SANITARY CARE OE THE SOLDIER BY HIS 
OFFICER. 
A REPLY. 
BY 
BRIGADE-SURGEON LIEUT-COLONEL E. NICHOLSON. 
I have been asked by Royal Artillery officers wbat I thought of the 
lecture delivered by Brigade-Surgeon Lieut.-Colonel Evatt at Wool¬ 
wich, and published in the May number of the R.A.I. “ Proceedings,” 
and, having served many years in the Regiment under the old system, 
I have decided, after careful reading of the lecture, to put my opinion, 
and the reasons for it, in writing, and to forward the whole to the 
Institution under the auspices of which the lecture is published. 
I must own that on first reading the lecture I began to be carried 
away by sentiment; one cannot entirely resist the journalistic influences 
around us, the wind of humanitarianism which is blowing over the 
West (followed, unfortunately, by the gales of socialism and anarchy). 
But, as I read on, the bitter cry of the sanitarian began to sound so 
many false notes that sense soon got the better of sensibility, and I 
began to read critically as well as sympathetically. By the time I got 
to the end of the lecture, I found it difficult to sift the valuable matter 
from the much larger quantity of what I cannot approve either in 
substance or in tone. The great improvements in barrack life have 
not been brought about by exaggerated statements, and further im¬ 
provement is more likely to be checked than encouraged, if these are 
allowed to stand without a protest. 
I have always taken a lively interest in the soldier’s welfare, and 
have found that generally all the conditions for a fair, often great, 
amount of comfort (relatively to the standard of it in the class whence 
the best soldiers are drawn) could be secured by good management; 
while the amount of disease or disability caused by defects in the con¬ 
ditions of barrack life, whether in England or in India, was very small 
compared to that produced by other defective conditions. For exam¬ 
ple :— 
Taking a hospital in a large R.A. station, I have frequently found 
that the proportion of drivers to gunners in hospital is larger than 
their relative strength, and on measuring these drivers I have found 
that the majority of them were under the standard of chest measure¬ 
ment ; low standard drivers, not being up to their work, drift into 
hospital (or prison). I venture to say that laxity in the recruiting of 
drivers has produced far more disease among them than all the sanitary 
defects of barracks have caused in the whole of the batteries to which 
they belong. 
?. VOL. XXI. 
