R. P. CoCKIN 
65 
Suggestions as to the measures to he taken to free the Colony 
from the disease. 
{a) Since the greater proportion of the patients were employed in 
work on the estates, it is justifiable to assume that the estates are 
the ordinary foci from which infection in the Colony arises, and con¬ 
sequently it is to the estates that attention should first be turned. 
The first point which calls for attention is the latrine accommodation 
on the estates, both in the fields and also in connection with the 
labourers’ cottages. 
At present this is either non-existent, or present only in isolated 
instances. Thus one estate which I visited and which employs con¬ 
siderably over a hundred labourers was not furnished with a single 
latrine, with the exception of the one supplied for the use of the 
overseer. This estate is notorious for the anaemic condition of its 
workers and some of the worst cases of the disease which I have seen 
came from this place. It was on this estate that I was informed that 
ground-itch was more common there than in any other part of the 
island; in consequence, probably, of the widespread infection of the 
ground. 
Destructors for the incineration of the contents of the latrine pans 
could be erected at a small cost, and in my opinion this would be 
preferable to the trench system. 
(b) Since most of the infection is received from the ground the use 
of boots whilst working on the estates should be compulsory. I am 
informed that where indentured labour is used on estates, as in 
British Guiana, the labourers, when going to the fields in the morning, 
are made to walk through a tank containing a tarry composition. 
This procedure attains the same end as the wearing of boots; but since 
the natives of Grenada refuse to submit to this form of protection, the 
wearing of boots is the only alternative. 
(c) The infected ground of the estates would need treatment by 
the application of lime. This would require forking in thoroughly and 
could be done at the same time as the trees were being manured. 
{d) In view of the difficulty of detecting recent deposits of excreta 
on the ground it is advisable that spaces be left between the rows of 
trees. This is, I believe, compulsory in some colonies and has been 
proved not to affect the yield from the estates. 
Parasitology vi 
5 
