SOME ASPECTS OF TROPICAL SANITATION 255 



noxious broods. It would indeed be a great matter if we could prevent the multiplication 

 of these annoying pests, quite apart from the question of any virus they may convey. 



Measles is rare but always troublesome. In my experience it is not so dangerous as in 

 this country, chiefly because the climatic conditions do not favour pulmonary complica- 

 tions. It keeps the Inspector, however, on the alert, as, with early notification, it is 

 sometimes possible to check its spread. Diphtheria is likewise uncommon but is of 

 great interest to the bacteriologist, because I am persuaded a coccal form of the BaciHiis 

 diphtherim exists in the Northern Sudan. I Gannot enter into this question here {vide 

 page 239). The disease tries the Inspector's patience sorely, owing to the habit common to 

 Syrians, Egyptians, Levantines, Arabs, and Sudanese of relatives flocking to see a sick 

 child. The number of "contacts" is sometimes very great, and it is most difficult to ferret 

 them out. No one responsible for the Public Health feels hajjpy while diphtheria is in our 

 midst. Its insidiousness is only equalled by its virulence, though fortunately antitoxin 

 has abolished half its terrors. 



Enteric fever and dysentery lead me to speak at once of conservancy methods, and Conservancy 

 here it is that the Inspector finds the most scope for his energies. In the Tropics, as 

 elsewhere, a water-carriage system of sewage disposal is undoubtedly the best, but such 

 a system is expensive and requires an abundant water-supply, while very often there 

 are special engineering difficulties to be overcome. In the old days, Kliartoum was served 

 by the Crowley cart, or so-called "iron-clad." An "insanitary juggernaut" it has been 

 named, and well-named, what with its foul sides, its splashing contents, its ever-leaking lid, 

 its cohort of filthy flies, and its uncertain balance. 



It was decided to abolish it, and introduce a bucket system on an approved princijjle — a bucket 

 the buckets having air-tight lids. An apparently satisfactory bucket was found, tested ^-''^''^"^ 

 and adopted. When used it is removed and a clean pail placed in its stead. The removal 

 is a daily, or rather a nightly one, and double removal in the twenty-four hours is required 

 in the case of latrines, hospitals, and some other institutions. The covered pails are 

 removed in carts drawn by camels to certain collecting stations, where mule-drawn trollies 

 await them on the conservancy tramways and they are conveyed to the trenching ground. 

 There they are emptied, well cleaned {vide Fig. 83), and returned for use. 



I am not likely to forget the time when the change was made. Our cleaners are of the 

 lowest class, often drunken, and always inclined to laziness. A change is usually abhorrent 

 to them, new ideas do not penetrate their skulls, they are in many ways like the beasts 

 that perish. We have no special sweeper class as in India, we have to rely on the riff-raff, 

 and they lead us now and then a pretty dance. 



I had only one British Inspector at the time, and I advised him to "gang warily," 

 to introduce the new system gradually, but he was ambitious and very keen on the work. 



He applied it to the whole town straight away. It was surprising how the cleaners 

 took to it. They preferred its compai'ative cleanliness, but for a time chaos reigned. 

 I was forced to become an inspector also, to rise at 3 a.m. — and in the winter it is 

 often bitterly cold at that hour — to pursue defaulters whom I found emptying one bucket 

 into another and thereby nullifying all the good of the system, to rush from quarter 

 to quarter, to storm and rave, and sometimes to stand aghast at the pile of pails which had 

 accumulated owing to some accident on the tram line. A crisis occurred. Owing to A crisis 

 certain women street-sweepers getting a rise of pay while he did not, every conservancy 

 cleaner struck work. Conservancy was at a standstill. The strike occurred at night. 

 I had a vision of the morning, the empty latrines, the frantic populace. There was only one 

 thing to do. I authorised the Inspector to promise every man a rise of pay, and then 



