AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



5TRAIT5 



AND 



PEDERATED MALAY 5TATE5. 



No. 9.] SEPTEMBER, 1910. [Vol. IX 



ESTATE SANITATION. 



By Dr. Brooke. 



An interesting lecture on estate sanitation was delivered by Dr. 

 Brooke, Port Health Officer, before a large audience of planters in the 

 Volunteer Drill Hall, on August 19th. 



He explained at the outset that he did not propose to give 

 instruction regarding hospital buildings or the treatment of the sick. 

 They had their medical officers for that. He was only going over 

 two or three points regarding the surroundings and dwellings of 

 coolies and a few points on the sicknesses amongst them. The coolie 

 lines were the most important item to consider. What they v/anted 

 to secure was constructional cheapness with sanitary efficiency. 

 Disease arose from dirt, and it was on the floor of buildings that the 

 majority of the dirt was held, being not only brought in by the feet of 

 people, but continually deposited from the air by gravity, so the most 

 important part to consider in construction of coolie lines was to have 

 some sort of floor that could be properly cleaned. They could have a 

 floor made of all, sorts of things, beaten mud, sand, wood, or some 

 more permanent structure. A sand floor v^ould be quite the worst 

 because there they had a floor that would absorb all sorts of dirt and 

 would be hard to keep clean. In a wood floor they had very much 

 the same disadvantages ; they had a material which soaked in the 

 mess. The dirt would not only get into the face of the wood, but in 

 the cracks between the boards, and germs were very hard to dislodge. 

 Probably for the tropics the best thing of all was a concrete floor with 

 a smooth cement facing. If this was raised up in the middle and 



