Florence Nightingale, Observations on the Evidence Contained in the Stational Reports Submitted to her by the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India (London, Edward Stanford, 1863), pp. 1–25. British Library, shelfmark 7686.b.41.

Although best remembered for her work to improve nursing care for the wounded in the Crimea, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) contributed importantly to debates on the sanitary state of the army in India. Making full use of the opportunity presented by the Royal Commission appointed in 1859 soon after the end of the revolt, she wrote comments on the stational reports submitted to the Commission, which were published separately in 1863 at the same time as the Report of the Commission. They were circulated widely in India and were said to have done more than anything else to popularize sound principles of public health. Nightingale concludes that there has never been a proper sanitary service in India, likening the neglect of water supply, drainage and diet to that found in unimproved English towns. Much of this accords with the findings of the Commission, but while these focused on means of improving the health of troops in the Indian Army, Nightingale goes further in identifying the critical importance of conditions outside military cantonments, and the need for interventionist sanitary programmes financed from local taxation.