17 OCTOBER 1863, Page 23

Observations on the Stational Reports on the Sanitary State of

the Army in India. By Florence Nightingale. (Stanford.)—A Royal Commission, successively presided over by Lords Herbert and Stanley, procured an elaborate series of reports from all the principal stations in India- These ware submitted to Miss Nightingale, whose comments are now printed in the little volume before us, and any one who reads them will have no difficulty in understanding why our soldiers in India die like sheep. It sickens one to hear what is the kind of water the troops, drink. The Ulsoor tank, at Bangalore, is " the outlet for the whole drainage of a most filthy bazaar," of the barracks, and almost all the station. "Dinapore admits that its wells have been poisoned by infiltra- tion from barrack privies "—and so on. Add to bad water bad drainage, want of ventilation and surface overcrowding, while the men are con- fined to barracks during the day, have no reading-rooms or libraries, and can buy as much ardent spirits as they like, and everything is perfectly clear. Yet tho lives which are thus wantonly wasted can only be re- placed at a greater cost than that of the necessary sanitary measures for preserving them.