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It is the one place which men from different barracks are sure to visit, and I am
certain that it is at all events a source of danger. In some of the latrines, in spite of
every care on the part of the Quarter-Master of the Regiment, the smell is sicken-
ing, and it is not to be wondered at on account of the want of efficient ventilation.
In my opinion in every respect the existing latrine is utterly bad, and I
recommend that the principle of Colonel Goodfellow's Karwar pattern latrine be
adopted. The roof to be supported by wooden uprights whilst bamboo battens
are fixed between each upright for a height of from 4 to 5 feet, a clear air <
space of about 2' 6" or 3' being left between the top of the battens and the
roof. The greatest care should be taken that no lime or masonry is used in the
building. The support for the wooden seat, if there must be a seat, being made
of cut stone. I should prefer that there was no seat, as in course of time the
under-surface of the wood, from the organic vapour it is exposed to, becomes rotten,
or, at all events, damp. Men on the line of march perforce adopt the squatting
posture, and it would be better if a seat could be done away with.
The iron receptacles below the seat are in my opinion likely to be a disease
source for reasons previously stated, and I suggest that glazed earthenware
vessels be used instead. They are perishable, but in this lies their safety, and
they are exceedingly cheap.
The passage behind the seats should, as well as the surface inside the privy, be
covered with asphalt. In my opinion it is not safe to keep these iron vessels in
the passage behind the latrine ; they should, I think, be kept at the manure yard,
where they should be at once thoroughly cleaned after being emptied, and only
be brought to the latrine to remove the ordure from the pans.
If Government cannot sanction the earthenware pans, then I recommend that
the iron pans in latrines, urinals and those used for conveyance of the ordure be
at stated periods, say once in three months, made red-hot so as to burn off any
offensive matter sticking to them.
I also recommend that the ashes of cutchra after sieving be used in the pans
instead of dry earth. They possess deodorising powers, and the compost is
much more valuable for manure ; and if, as I think it should be, a self-acting
hopper were fixed above every seat the ashes could not be as likely to clog as the
dry earth.
In stations, such as Kirkee, Poona, Nasirabad, Hyderabad, Bombay, &c.,
where there is a plentiful supply of water brought in from a distance, the refuse
water from bath, cook and ablution rooms, as well as the night-soil and urine from
the latrines could beremoved with in finitely greater efficiency and with incalculably
less danger to health through glazed pipe sewers than by the clumsy and expensive
hand removal system now in force.
As previously stated the disposal of the dry refuse, stable litter, &c., and
night-soil is in many stations conducted not according to sanitary principles. At
Karáchi, for example, a Committee, of which I was a member, did its best to
obtain sanction for poudrette to be made instead of the night-soil being stored
in pits and the dry refuse heaped up, but the small expenditure required for main-
tenance of the labourers to work the system prevented the authorities who, of
course, have to limit expenditure, according their sanction. I can only repeat that
this system would, for health considerations, in the absence of a water carriage
system for the removal of the night-soil, be undoubtedly the best and infinitely
better than the present arrangements ; whilst by it the refuse is preserved for
application to the land as manure, and I am quite sure cultivators, as at Poona,
would soon learn its value for agriculture, although regulations would be
required not to permit its application to land within a certain radius of the
cantonment. In all cases the dry refuse should be burnt and reduced to ashes
instead of being stored to undergo slow decomposition,
Regarding the water-supply I can only say that there can be no safety until the
directions of the Army Sanitary Commission regarding covering over wells and
providing a casing of cement outside the tubes for a depth of 20 feet are carried
out. I am fully aware that Government and the Military authorities never
lose an opportunity of improving the source of supply when there is the chance,
but I wish in this chapter to bring again to prominent notice the evils connected
with the distribution of the water to the troops.