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CAPT. J. DAVIDSON. 



into the pit, the excreta were covered with a few inches of sand. When the contents 

 of the pit reached to about 2 feet from the top, it was filled in and treated as 

 described in the case of deep trench latrines. 



III. Disposal of Urine. 



Several types of improvised urinals are used, being made from biscuit tins, cresol 

 drums, or pieces of corrugated iron, and so constructed that the least possible fouled 

 surface is exposed to flies. The urine is directed into the ordinary type of soakage 

 pit, which is filled with perforated tins and completely covered in. Urine tubes 

 which resemble somewhat a piece of stove piping, slightly tapering towards one end, 



are used considerably. 



t 



IV. Disposal of Camp and Cook-house Refuse. 



The burial of unburnt cook-house refuse affords one of the gravest sources of 

 fly-breeding in a desert campaign. The writer examined, nine days afterwards, 

 holes in which unburnt .refuse was buried with a covering of about one foot of sand, 

 and found enormous numbers of pupae present and a few newly hatched flies already 

 emerging through the sand. After the battle of Romani, in August 1916, we camped 

 on an area of ground which had been used for a few days by mobile troops. In 



w 



Fig. 4. Portable incinerator made with galvanised iron and iron pickets ; 

 holes are cut in the iron and top cover for drying the refuse. 



certain places many newly emerged flies were found walking over the sand, and on 

 digging in the sand at these places where obviously in some cases shallow latrines 

 had been, and in others unburnt refuse had been buried, the pupae were so numerous 

 that it almost looked as though a sack of large black oats had been buried there. 



Under certain circumstances, when the front line troops were under observation 

 by the enemy, it was not wise to incinerate, owing to the large volume of smoke 

 produced. In these cases the cook-house refuse, which was kept covered from flies 

 as much as possible, was buried in deep pits. The refuse was thoroughly treated 

 with crude tar oil or cresol and the pits carefully filled in. 



