l commission on the sanitary
state of the army, to the high death-rate, and certain sanitary defects in
barracks and hospitals, such as overcrowding, defective ventilation, bad
drainage and insufficient means of cooking and cleanliness, to which this
excessive mortality was among other causes assigned.

In 1857 a commission appointed for improving the sanitary condition of
barracks and hospitals made an exhaustive inspection of the barracks in the
United Kingdom, and reported in 1861. This was followed by similar
commissions to examine the barracks in the Mediterranean stations and in
India. These commissions, besides making valuable recommendations for the
improvement of almost every barrack inspected by them, laid down the
general sanitary principles applicable to the arrangement and construction
of military barracks and hospitals; and in spite of the lapse of time, the
reports repay close study by any one interested in sanitary science as
applied to the construction and improvement of such buildings. The names of
Sidney Herbert (afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea), Captain (afterwards Sir
Douglas) Gallon, R.E., and John Sutherland, M.D., stand out prominently
among those who contributed to the work. The commission was constituted a
standing body in 1862, and continues its work to the present day, under the
name of the Army Sanitary Committee, which advises the secretary of state
for war on all sites for new barracks or hospitals, also upon type plans,
especially as to sanitary details, and principles of sanitary construction
and fitments. A definite standard of accommodation was laid down, which
formed the basis of the first issue of the _Barrack Synopsis_ in 1865. A
general order dated 1845 had directed that a space of 450 to 500 cub. ft.
per man should be provided in all new barracks at home stations; but this
had not been applied in existing barracks or buildings appropriated as
such, and when detailed examination was made, it was found that some men
had actually less than 250 cub. ft., and out of accommodation for nominally
76,813 soldiers, 2003 only had 600 cub. ft. per man, which was the minimum
scale now laid down by the royal commission of 1857. To give every soldier
his allotted amount of 600 cub. ft., meant a reduction in accommodation of
the barracks by nearly one-third the number. Many buildings were condemned
as being entirely unsuitable for use as barracks; in other cases
improvements were possible by alterat