PART I. INCIDENCE 11 



out the arrangements and to control the men. We were fortunate 

 in having the services of Serjt. Weavis, who carried out his 

 duties admirably. Arrangements were made through the sanitary 

 officers of the camps or prisons who saw that a special latrine or 

 screened area was set apart for the purposes of collection. Within 

 the enclosure were arranged in a row a series of " stool closets," 

 which are small zinc pans each supported on an iron ring on four 

 metal legs. There is a wooden seat round the pan. We found 

 that a couple of dozen of these were ample for working purposes. 

 The men from whom samples are to be collected are paraded, 

 preferably directly after breakfast, near the enclosure. They are 

 then instructed, numbered off and told to use the stool closet 

 corresponding to their numbers. The men are ordered ngt to 

 micturate into the pan, into which only faeces are to be passed. 

 Each man is given a collecting tube with a metal spoon attached 

 to the cork or some other receptacle, and when he has eased himself 

 he takes a sample of the stool on the metal spoon and places it in 

 the tube. During the proceedings it is necessary to have an 

 orderly, who understands the work, on duty in the latrine to see 

 that the men carry out the process properly and do not attempt to 

 mix up the samples either by accident or intentionally. The men 

 carrying the tubes line up outside and the name of each is written 

 on the tube while the serjeant obtains any information such as 

 history of dysentery, previous foreign service and so on. Mean- 

 while a number of cleaners are occupied with the zinc pans and 

 when they are properly cleaned and dried they are replaced and 

 another series of men instructed to repeat the procedure. In this 

 manner in a very short time it is possible to collect reliably fifty or 

 sixty specimens. It is not possible, of course, to collect a sample 

 from every man paraded, for a certain number of men will be unable 

 to oblige. The " defaulters" can be again paraded with a fresh lot 

 of men the following morning. This method of collection we have 

 used regularly and it has yielded very good results. The men who 

 were found to be carriers of E. histolytica were ordered into 

 hospital for treatment, and, though this was done on the evidence 

 of a single sample collected in the manner described above, in no 

 case did an error arise in the matter of bringing the wrong man 

 into hospital. 



We have described the method in some detail, because, when it 

 was at first suggested that we should collect samples from healthy 

 men it was thought that the difficulties to be overcome would be 

 insurmountable. Furthermore, the method could be employed for 



