SANITARY WORK IN GREAT DISASTERS. 461 



four rooms. When tents or temporary houses arrive, the proper 

 location of these should be decided by the sanitary officer in 

 charge. These preliminaries having received attention, the work 

 proper of the sanitary officer begins : 



1. The supply of disinfectants should be ordered at once. This 

 order should cover all that will be needed while the emergency 

 lasts, and is necessarily larger in summer than in winter. It was 

 found at Johnstown that the moral effect of a large supply of dis- 

 infectants was very great and for good. In ordering disinfectants 

 it is well to provide that what is not needed may be returned to 

 the manufacturers. Pure chemicals and those easy of application 

 are the best. 



2. The region should be divided into convenient districts, and 

 each placed under a local physician as sanitary inspector. At 

 Johnstown the local physicians named one of their own number 

 as health officer, and he nominated to the State Board of Health 

 the inspectors, and this plan worked very well'. Inspectors are also 

 needed for the camps of citizens and laborers, for the morgues and 

 burial-places. These inspectors should all make a daily report in 

 writing, stating the exact sanitary condition of their districts, and 

 in these reports they should also state any need of food, clothing, 

 shelter, or medical stores. So long as is necessary, the inspectors 

 should give their whole time to their duties. 



3. The burial of the dead needs early attention. In summer, 

 this must be hastened if the number be very large ; in winter, 

 more time for identification can be given. If the number of dead 

 is very large, and the distress of the survivors too great to permit 

 of accurate identification, bodies should be buried in their clothes, 

 so that identification can be made out at some future time, when 

 the bodies may be lifted for reburial. Very careful and accurate 

 descriptions of the bodies should always be taken before burial. 

 If possible, the bodies should be brought to one point for identi- 

 fication. At Johnstown, for ten days, a large proportion of the 

 bodies were embalmed, but if buried in their clothes this is not 

 necessary. Great care should be taken to number the graves as 

 the bodies were numbered at the morgue, so that when lifted the 

 record may be found to be correct. 



4. The water-supply of the district should be inspected at 

 once, and frequently while the emergency continues. Wells and 

 springs had better be closed if any other water is available. 

 Impure drinking-water must not be tolerated for a moment 

 in these emergencies. Chemical analyses should be made fre- 

 quently. 



5. One or more hospitals for contagious diseases should be 

 established at once, and every case of such disease, as it arises, 

 should be transferred to these hospitals, there to remain until all 



