But it is not for the soldier alone we speak. The report has a much deeper meaning and intent than this:—it aims at nothing less than to bring the appliances of a higher civilisation to the natives of India. Such revelations are made, especially in the reports from the stations, with regard to the sanitary condition of these, as to be almost incredible. Everywhere the people are suffering from epidemic diseases; fevers, dysenteries, cholera—constant epidemics we may call them, and constant high death-rates (how high can never be known, because there is no registration).
The plague and pestilence is the ordinary state of things. The extraordinary is when these sweep over large tracts, gathering strength in their course, to pass over gigantic mountain ranges and to spread their ravages over Western Asia and Europe. And all this might be saved!
We know the causes of epidemic outbreaks here. Take the worst condition of the worst and most neglected town district at home; and this is, to say the least of it, much better than the normal condition of nearly the whole surface of every city and town in India.
Not one city or town is drained.
Domestic filth round the people's houses is beyond description.
Water-supply is from wells, or tanks, in ground saturated with filth.
No domestic conveniences.
