deaths among the troops encamped in the United States 

 being due to this cause. 



In the disposal of excrement it is essential to avoid 

 pollution of water supplies, and above all r 



the exposure of the wastes in such a manner ^ /? . 



that infection may be carried by flies or in 

 other ways to food. In fixed garrisons satisfactoiy methods 

 of disposal will usually be provided. For use in camp good 

 portable incinerators have been devised; but when these 

 are not available, sink or latrine trenches may be dug to 

 receive the excreta, in such a position as not to menace any 

 source of water supply. In fly season the trenches should 

 be provided with seats with the lids and the open space be- 

 neath the seats boxed in or covered to the ground with mus- 

 lin or sacking. When it is impossible to prepare pit covers, 

 crude oil, kerosene or chloride of lime well distributed over 

 the sides and bottom will help to keep flies away. 



Indiscriminate soil pollution is a military offense which 

 may be of serious magnitude, since an individual in perfectly 

 normal health may be a typhoid carrier and through care- 

 lessness may infect scores of his fellows. For the same 

 reason the habit of washing the hands after resort to the 

 toilet is of the greatest importance. 



In civil life, where sewers are not available, the provision 

 of tightly built fly-proof outside toilets is _. . - 



of vital sanitary importance. The screen- tt h m 

 ing of such closets in Jacksonville, Fla., w 



and elsewhere has been followed by phenom- 

 enal decreases in the typhoid death rate. For thickly 

 settled communities the installation of a sewerage system 

 of course offers the ideal solution of the difficulty from the 

 standpoint of the individual householder. The sewage 

 collected by such a system may be so treated as to be purified 

 to any desired degree by screening, sedimentation, filtration 

 or disinfection before it is discharged into adjacent water- 

 courses. 



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