SOME ASPECTS OP TEOPICAL SANITATION 257 



Great words, gentlemen ! No doubt the poetic licence is again visible, but who will 

 deny the main truth of the argument, albeit Victor Hugo ignores the effect of the sewage 

 on fish life, a subject of special interest to us to-day. Furthermore, he does not mention 

 the problems which await, the difficulties which beset, the scientist who would carry this 

 dream into practice. If these difficulties are great in Europe, they are much greater in 

 the Tropics, where money is not plentiful and trained engineers are few. In one respect, 

 however, the Tropics often score. Land is usually plentiful and cheap. Hitherto, at 

 Khartoum, we have had to be content with pitting our sewage in shallow trenches and 

 leaving it to the action of those saprophytic organisms which speedily transform it from 

 an abomination into a harmless product of bacterial activity. We have little rain, and 

 hence cannot grow rain crops on the ground, and in the Sudan, water spells money with 

 a big " M." All the time, however, we have been experimenting on a small scale to see E.Nperiments 

 if a septic tank system can be applied to such a dry system of conservancv as is in vogue. '" '"^<=""''^' 



. . . : . ' treatment of 



It is far from being really dry. The population is in the main Mohammedan, and the sewage 

 Mohammedan, in this respect advanced beyond his western brother, employs lavage, so 

 that the contents of our pails are for the most part semi-liquid. At the same time it 

 was found necessary to dilute the sewage to obtain anything like a good effect. Such 

 dilute sewage was treated both in metal and in brick tanks, sei-obically and anaerobically, 

 and certainly it is remarkable how quickly liquefaction occurs when the temperature is 

 high. I cannot enter into details, but I recall an incident whereby an Inspector proved 

 his worth. A tankful of diluted sewage had been left to work out its own salvation for 

 48 hours. It was far from savoury, but I wished to see and obtain samples of the effluent. 

 The outlet valve was rusty, and in order to loosen it we had to employ a key and hammer. 

 These instruments performed their duty with a vengeance, for suddenly the whole valve 

 came away, and there was a rush of foul-smelling effluent of the colour, if not the 

 consistence, of pea-soup. The Sudanese foreman fled. I confess I skipped out of the 

 way with alacrity, only the Inspector stood firm. Knee-deep in the stream he searched 

 for, found the valve, rammed it home, and stayed the flood. 



"Familiarity," you may say, " breedeth contempt." No doubt; but I said to myself, 

 " This is the man for my money," and I have had no reason to alter my opinion. 



We are now about to advance and make a serious effort to start a sewage farm, Proposed 

 whereon we may grow fodder crops, such as gerawi grass and burseem. In a country " ^"^ 

 where intestinal parasites are common, vegetables for human consumption should not be 

 produced on sewage-treated soil. 



Personally, I think the scheme will prove successful, and at any rate it is in the 

 right direction, while the fact that our trenching ground is limited, and is in danger of 

 becoming sour, renders some such change imperative. 



One has outlined the conservancy method for the main town, but such a system 

 cannot be aijplied to the long line of native villages south of the town where, tribe by tribe, 

 live hundreds of native labourers and their families. Nor can it be applied to certain 

 extensive native locations in Khartoum North. It is in such cases that the small 

 incinerator. Fig. 81, proves itself of value. It is built of sun-dried brick, protected incinerators 

 by a coating of what is termed " zibla " — a mixture of mud, straw and manure, which 

 hardens and withstands rain — is cheap, easily constructed, and easily worked. The man 

 who attends to the fire acts as sweeper over a certain area. The natives follow their usual 

 custom of easing themselves in the open, and the scattered excreta are swept up daily, 

 along with the general refuse of the villages, and burned to ashes, the latter being buried or 

 employed in filling up inequalities in the gromid. This method, originally, I think, devised 



