104 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DISPOSAL OF GENERAL CAMP WASTES. 
Metal receptacles with tightly fitting covers should be placed at 
convenient points about the camp and all waste materials placed in 
them. They should be emptied once each day and their contents 
disposed of by burning. The incinerators may be used to good 
advantage in this connection. Materials not entirely consumed by 
the fire should be buried. Tin cans always should be placed in the 
fire and then buried. If left on the surface of the ground with 
particles of food and moisture adhering to them, they may furnish 
breeding places for flies and mosquitoes. 
Some one prisoner should be made responsible for the cleanliness 
of the camp grounds and their surroundings and daily inspection 
should be made by the camp authorities in order to see that wastes 
are properly collected and disposed of. 
DISPOSAL OF BATH AND LAUNDRY WASTES. 
Water which has come in contact with the body during the process 
of bathing, and that w T hich has been used in washing dirty clothing, 
may contain the germs of any disease with which any person in the 
camp happens to be afflicted. In spite of this fact, however, it is a 
common custom to empty bath and laundry wastes on the surface of 
the ground in the vicinity of the camp structures, where they cause 
pollution of the soil and are unsightly and ill-smelling. Water-tight 
covered receptacles should be provided for all liquid wastes, which 
should then be evaporated in the incinerator, or carried 100 yards or 
more from the camp, poured into shallow trenches, and covered with 
earth. 
FLIES AND MOSQUITOES. 
In almost all convict camps flies and mosquitoes are present in 
such numbers as to be a veritable scourge. In general, only rather 
feeble attempts are made to get rid of them because the actual 
menace which they present, the conditions under which they breed, 
and effective methods for their destruction and prevention are under- 
stood but little by those in charge of camps. 
Flies. 
The danger of the transmission of disease by flies in particular can 
not be emphasized too strongly. They breed in and feed upon the 
filth of privies and manure piles and carry particles of it on their 
bodies and legs to kitchens and mess rooms, where they come into 
contact with and contaminate the food. In this way there is reason 
to believe that flies convey infection in such diseases as typhoid fever, 
cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, smallpox, hook-worm disease, tubercu- 
losis, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, skin infections, and many 
others. 
