APPENDIX V 
A Simple Apparatus for Use in the Safe 
Disposal of Night-Soil* 
HE proper disposal of human excreta is recog- 
1 nized by sanitarians as the most important single 
measure needed to prevent the spread of typhoid fever, 
hookworm disease, the dysenteries, and certain other 
widely prevalent diseases. 
Where large numbers of people are gathered to¬ 
gether, as in cities, the removal of dejecta from per¬ 
sons becomes, from an esthetic standpoint at least, a 
necessity, and practically all modern cities have ex¬ 
pended large sums of money to install sewerage sys¬ 
tems, which, though usually removing the sewage in 
such a way as to prevent it from becoming an intoler¬ 
able nuisance to sight and smell, yet frequently fall 
short of safety from a sanitary standpoint. 
Though a city may dispose of its own sewage prop¬ 
erly, its people are exposed to excreta-borne infections 
brought in on various food supplies from farms. Thus 
the sanitation of the farm is vastly important, not only 
to the rural population, but also to the urban, and there¬ 
fore the farm as the fountain head of various and far- 
flowing streams of infection is the logical point to 
*From Public Health Report No. 54. Preliminary Note on a 
Simple and Inexpensive Apparatus in Use in Safe Disposal of 
Night-Soil. By L. L. Lumsden, Norman Roberts, and Ch. War- 
dell Stiles. 
305 
