124
SKETCH OF THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE NATIVE ARMY OF BOMBAY.
The system of Trench-latrines was ordered to be introduced at this station, and the experi-
ment was commenced on ground 26 1/2, 88, and 136 yards, respectively, from the wells ; but on my
indicating the risk of contamination to the water-supply, they were moved to a greater distance.
In consequence of the representation made on the subject, a committee was assembled, and
reported that the available ground for Trench-latrines consisted of black soil to a depth of
about 12 feet from the rock but in parts less, that it becomes broken up into holes and fissures
in the dry season, that water-courses were running in close proximity to the wells, and that
when heavy rain occurred the ground might be more or less flooded, and the water, it was ap-
prehended, might be apt to contaminate the wells. They ventured to suggest that in the
Bengal Presidency, where the Trench-latrine system originated, the native troops are not in
the habit of keeping their families with them, that on the Bombay side a native corps has
usually about 300 women and about the same number of children, and that danger to health
would be likely to arise, were the native troops compelled to use open trenches, at stations like
this, in heavy rains, where the black soil quickly becomes mud ; and that it would be almost
impossible to prevent the verandahs and even rooms of houses from being used by women
and children for the purposes of nature rather than be exposed to the inclemency of the
weather. Not only the native troops, but the more respectable class of native inhabitants,
dislike the use of trenches, on account of the exposure and inconvenience to their wives and
families. The men had become accustomed to the use of the permanent latrines, from which
the filth was removed beyond cantonments, and the system was unattended with risk to
health or to drinking-water. The committee considered that the saturation of the ground in
the vicinity of the lines, with the excrementitious matter of upwards of two thousand indivi-
duals, would be apt to induce "a filth-sodden soil" which would predispose to disease of a low
type, and produce a deteriorating effect on the health of the troops, though such influence
might no doubt be lessened by deep ploughing and subsequent systematic cultivation ; but to
carry out this would be attended with considerable expense from want of water. The matter
was referred to Executive Engineer, who admitted the existence of risk in one well to be
slight, in that it might be affected through the neighbouring nullah, in one on lower ground
that there might be risk of pollution, and in one, which was used by the lower castes, still
more likely to be the case. On the whole, the risk of contamination was small, though per-
haps sufficient to deter in carrying out a scheme which, whatever its merits and however well
it may have worked elsewhere, is not universally popular, as at Belgaum, Rajkot, and Kurra-
chee, and is impracticable during the rains, if the monsoon is severe. The Sanitary Commis
sioner on being consulted stated that the ground used need not be large, and might be
trenched over and over again, that deodorization is immediate and complete, that if moisture
be carefully excluded, disintegration is so absolute, that after a time the fœces disappear,
and the product is a rich compost, so free from smell that it may be on the table of a room ;
and as to whether it is harmless or not that is a point which might be argued ad infinitum.
He instanced in proof the experiment of the Hydrabad Jail, where the same ground had been
trenched over fifteen times in three years and four months by about 300 prisoners, and that it
might be doubted whether it had 3 inches and 4 cents of rain in that time. This result seems
evidently to have been owing to local circumstances of an arid climate, suitable soil, with very
little rain, and the long continued high temperature, preventing putrefactive changes, a point
essential to the assimilation and neutralization of excretal matter. The condition of such a
locality, however, can scarcely be compared with one like this station, with an average of 33
inches of rain, and reaching to 52 in a wet season, in which the soil remains more or less satu-
rated for months. It is probable that the views taken by competent observers may have been
owing to difference in local circumstances. In the Bengal Presidency, the reports, as far as
known, seem to have been favourable ; whereas under the eye of the Deputy Inspector-General
P . D . A . , t h e r e s u l t w a s l e s s s a t i s f a c t o r y , a n d h e b a s e d h i s o p i n i o n a s t o i t s u n s u i t a b l e n e s s f r o m
what took place under his own observation and from a personal knowledge of nearly every
station in the Bombay Presidency ; and the state of the trenches that he describes as having
witnessed at Poona also occurred at this station in heavy rains. Researches in agricultural
chemistry show that no two soils possess the same absorbent power, and that their capacity in
this respect is limited, the earth becoming saturated at a certain point. Moreover, as yet there
is no satisfactory evidence of the earth's power to destroy contagion of zymotic disease ; and the
deposition of large collections of excretal matter, in close proximity to dwellings and water-
supply, may, hereafter, be attended with risk of increase of sickness in such localities, as has
been clearly indicated by one of the ablest writers at the presidency, who, in reviewing this sub
- ject, after alluding to the extensive burial of human excrement that is now going on around
every cantonment, in the neighbourhood of jails, and near many of our large cities, and while
fully admitting that earth is a great deodorizer and disinfectant, points out that to such
properties there must be some limit. And, as years pass on and such powers are more tested,
the time will at length arrive, when the burial of the material in question, in the neighbour-
hood of our large stations, may not necessarily imply destruction ; and the idea is not farfetch-
ed, that by the wholesale burial of such material, we may be simply storing the seeds of
epidemics which may at some future occasion be again turned up and restored to activity.