Now the ordinary system of dieting British soldiers in India is more adapted to a cold climate than that of out-door farm servants doing work in England.
More than this, the occasional dram at home is commuted, by regulation, in India into a permission to drink two drams, i.e., 6 oz. of raw spirits every day. And be it remembered that, at the same time, the men have little or nothing to do. The craving for spirits, induced by this regulation habit of tippling, leads to increase of drunkenness—so that, what with over-eating, over-drinking, total idleness, and vice springing directly from these, the British soldier in India has small chance indeed of coping with the climate, so-called. The regulation-allowance of raw spirit which a man may obtain at the canteen is no less than 18½ gallons per annum; which is, I believe, three times the amount per individual which has raised Scotland, in the estimation of economists, to the rank of being the most spirit-consuming nation in Europe. Of late years, malt liquor has been partly substituted for spirits. But, up to the present time, every man, if he thinks fit, may draw his 18½ gallons a year of spirits, besides what he gets surreptitiously at the Bazaar.[1]
- ↑ Tippling is unfortunately not confined to common soldiers. Officers also use spirits, generally brandy with water or with soda-water. It relieves exhaustion for the time at the expense of the constitution, and is a prime agent in sending officers to the hills to recover their health, and home on sick furlough. The practice is at some stations called "pegging," alluding to putting pegs in one's coffin. Is not this practice of "pegging" one reason why officers are less healthy in India than civilians?
