1774 



HELMINTH INFECTIONS 



Messrs. Freudenberg and Company, of Colombo, use a simple incinerator, 

 and they have kindly supplied us with the following details of their process, 

 which is carried out at night : — 



Average number of buckets of faecal matter burnt per night, 20. 



Average weight contents of a bucket, 26 pounds. 



Average quantity of ash left after burning the above, 5 buckets. 



Average amount of coir dust used per bucket, 2 pounds. 



Average amount of firewood used per burning, 2 hundredweight. 



Average amount of rubbish burnt at the same time, together with a 

 few old gunny bags, hundredweight. 



Average number of coolies whose faecal matter is dealt with, 400. 



Latrine coolies at 62-J cents per diem to do the work, 2. 



Firing starts at 7 p.m., and is finished by 8 a.m.; the highest tempera- 

 ture recorded was 1,050° C. 



The urine can, of course, be separated from the faeces by using a Donaldson's 

 separator latrine. The urine can then be disposed of by burial, and the faeces 

 burnt. 



There is no doubt that some such method would have excellent results in 

 dealing with the problem in small communities and estates if carried out 

 properly. 



Badly infected lands might be treated with lime. It has been recommended 

 that coolies should protect their feet by first dipping them in a bucket of 

 tar, and then in one with sand. 



The method of deahng with a large community is best exemphfied 

 by quoting the excellent work of the two Porto Rico Commissions, 

 temporary and permanent, the former consisting of Ashford, King, 

 and Igaravdez, and the latter of Igaravdez, Martinez, and Sein y Sein. 



Patients attend at a central, or one of the outlying depots or dispensaries, 

 where their stools are examined, and they are given medicines, and a card 

 with the following instructions: — 



1 . Take one of the two purgatives given to you to-night (sodium sulphate) . 



2. Take at 6 a.m. to-morrow half tlxe capsules [all the capsules equal 45 to 

 60 grains (3 to 4 grammes) of thymol, or 23 to 45 grains to 3 grammes) of 

 /3-naphthol] . 



3. Take the other half at 8 a.m. the same morning. 



4. Take the other purgative at 10 a.m. 



5. You should neither drink wine nor any alcoholic liquor during the time 

 you are taking these medicines. 



6. Come for more medicines until the physician says you are cured. 



7. Have a privy in your house. Do not defaecate on the surface of the 

 ground, but in the privy, 



8. Do not walk barefooted, so that you may avoid catching mazamorra in 

 your feet. Wear shoes, and you will never suffdr from anaemia. 



In addition, farmers were requested to stop the pollution of the ground, and 

 to introduce the use of shoes. 



The result was that 1 1 per cent, of the population were treated in the year 

 1906-07 (89,233), and of these, 25'7 per cent, were cured, 17-4 per cent, practi- 

 cally cured, 40'5 per cent, were under treatment, i6'2 per cent, ceased to 

 return, and 0-2 per cent, died, at a total cost of ;^9,6oo, of which ;^7,200 went 

 in salaries and 1,100 in drugs. 



Again, the highest credit must be given to the Americans for the fearless way 

 in which they spend money on the prevention of disease and the free hand 

 which they give to the sanatarian in the tropics. 



In mines Oliver recommends that a solution of iron sulphate be used as a 

 wash for the floors. 



Salt has also been recommended by Perroncito, and later by other observers, 

 but as a solution of at least 2 per cent, is necessary to kill the larvae, this 

 method is too expensive. 



