INSECT FAUNA OF HUMAN EXCREMENT 



543 



mon kitchen or while being served in the mess tent." Tluis the 

 Surgeon-General not only gave sound instructions but stated 

 his reasons for these instructions. 



In the fall of 1899 I had an opportunit}^ to examine an ideal 

 camp in which the latrines were properly and regularly treated. 

 This was the great camp at the Presidio, San Francisco, Cali- 

 fornia. At the time, several thousands of soldiers were en- 

 camped at that place, either about to go to or having just re- 

 turned from the Philippines. In company with Col. W. H. 

 Forwood, U. S. A., the medical officer in charge of the Depart- 

 ment of California, I made a thorough inspection of the camp 

 and saw plainly that there was not the slightest opportunity for 

 the transfer of faical microorganisms by flies to the mess tables 

 or the kitchens. During the summer of 1900, I was able to 

 contrast this excellent condition of affairs with a large militia 

 camp where the sinks were supposed to be looked after twice a 

 day but during two days there was no effort to cover any of the 

 faeces. The camp contained about 1,200 men, and ffies were 

 extremely numerous in and around the sinks. Eggs of Musca 

 domestica were seen in large clusters on the fgeces and in some 

 instances the batches were two inches wide and half an inch in 

 depth, resembling little patches of lime. Some of the sinks 

 were in very dirty condition and had a very disagreeable odor. 

 This condition of affairs in army camps in 1898 was not con- 

 fined to the United States. An epidemic occurred in the camp 

 of the Eighth Cavalry at Puerto Principe, Cuba, in which 250 

 cases of the fever occurred. The disease was imported by the 

 regiment into its Cuban camp, and Dr. Walter Reed, U. S. A., 

 upon investigation reported to the Surgeon-General that the 

 epidemic "was clearly not due to water infection, but was 

 transferred from the infected stools of the patients to the food 

 by means of flies, the conditions being especially favorable for 

 this manner of dissemination. * * *" ^ 



The agency of flies in the transmission of Asiatic cholera 

 was convincingly shown at an early date by the observations 



' Sanitary Lessons of the War, by George M. Sternberg, Surgeon-General, 

 U. S. A., read at meeting of the American Medical Association, at Columbus, 

 Ohio, June 6 to 9, 1899. — Phila. Med. Jour., June 10 and 17, 1899. 



