Medical Officers of the Army of India.
As a very general rule then, it is only in those limited communities which are
constantly under strict sanitary control by medical officers, viz., in jails, asylums
and Regiments and on some Government farms, that scientific methods of earth
disposal are at all adequately pursued. Can it be affirmed that there is nothing to
be desired, that we have attained the finality of a perfect method of disposal so
far as these especially favoured institutions are concerned?
There is unfortunately much cogent evidence, direct and indirect, in contraven
-
tion of such a comfortable assumption, and as witness to the former category we
need only cite the Annual Reports of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Govern
-
ment of India (see especially Section II, and tables V, XXX and XLIV in the appen
-
dix) and the criticisms and orders which issue from headquarters from time to time,
the latest of which emanated from the Quarter Master General's office as recently,
as September 1899 and June 1900.* It will be admitted that while the present
system in cantonments and jails is open to criticism in its simplest details, there
are abundant sources of risk at nearly every stage of the procedure for removal
and disposal, if it be granted that human excreta contain the elements of, or pro
-
vide the favouring conditions for, certain disease causes. It is scarcely necessary
to follow the course of events from the latrine to the trenching-ground, to point
out how each and all the links in the chain may prove defective, with the conse
-
quent retention of dangerous organic filth in the immediate environment; any one
whose business it is to supervise the arrangements can fill in the details.
The "Trenching"
system.
Radical defects in
removal.
The quarter Master General remarks (September 1899*) as regards "the
frequent inspection, the disinfection of latrines and conservancy plant generally,
that this is a matter which should receive closer attention, and one which, His Excel
-
lency regrets to note, is to a considerable degree lost sight of in British corps," but
indeed, nothing short of the most constant and sedulous supervision throughout
the whole process will avail to obviate the risks, while we have to depend on the
careless and ignorant native sweeper. It is not possible for the medical officer to
be ubiquitous, and for the most part his supervision and action is remedial rather
than preventive. Everything depends on conscientious attention to details: e.g .,
are the regulations as to the use of dry earth in the pans, and its frequent
removal from, and renewal on, the latrine floor, properly effected? Is the
number of sweepers always adequate, and, as a consequence, is the removal of
the uncovered, or partially covered, excreta immediately effected, or is it done
at what are euphemistically called "stated intervals"? Special directions are
given as to the glazing of the pans and as to their cleansing; but the glaze is
often bad and the pans crack, and in their cleansing and in the cleansing of the
* No. 3851-B. of 22nd September 1899 and Nos. 2311-2314-B. of 29th June 1900, to Lieutenant
Generals Commanding; the latter will be referred to subsequently.
F F