142 DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY OF BRISBANE, ETC. 



reported from brass foundries as due to the oxide, and have been 

 traced to the sulphate in the adulteration of cheese, apparently 

 to the oxide in injui-ious ice creams, to the chloride in cheap 

 wearing apparel, as well as to the carbonate in drinking water 

 supplied by means of galvanised iron pipes. Instances of the 

 latter kind of poisoning in the tropics are perhaps not so widely 

 known as at home. In 1900 part of an Indian regiment, the 

 Malay States Guides, stationed at Pahang, suffered from zinc 

 poisoning to a very marked degree. 



" The 56 men who formed the detachment were transferred 

 from the neighbouring State of Perak in March, 1900. I took 

 over medical charge of this half-company in September, 1900, 

 and found that the health of the men had been very bad during 

 the previous six months. Gastro-intestinal complaints were so 

 frequent and serious as to almost verge on an epidemic. Eoute 

 marching had been curtailed, early bathing prohibited, and it 

 had been supposed in July that a form of dysentery was endemic 

 in the barracks. Inquiry showed that the half company was 

 composed partly of Sikh soldiers and partly of Pathans, living 

 in parallel and identical barracks on an isolated hill, a short 

 distance from the town of Kuala Lipis and about 48 feet above 

 it. The two buildings were erected in 1898 on an artificially- 

 levelled flat, the surface of which was of stiff clay streaked with 

 laterite. Each barrack was 90 feet in length by 40 feet wide, 

 roofed in 1898 with sheets of 22 B.W.G. corrugated iron. 



" In 1900, for the convenience of water supply, a galvanised 

 iron tank (capacity 400 gallons) had been supplied to each 

 building, one being for the use of the 31 Sikhs, the other for 

 the 25 Pathans who made up the strength of the half-company. 

 Rain water was collected for the first time in January, 1900, 

 from the roofs by means of zinc gutters and down spouts leading 

 into the tanks. No rain water separators or other appliances 

 were in use with a view of discharging the first water collected. 

 The water supply had previously been carried from a large river 

 at the foot of the hill. 



" The galvanised iron roofs had not been covered with a 

 thatch, and were not painted. The tanks only had been painted 

 green outside and washed with cement inside. There is but 

 little vegetation in immediate proximity to the barrack square, 

 but the jungle soil in the vicinity of the barracks is shaded and 

 thickly covered with vegetable and organic matter in an active 



