G. H. F. Nuttall 
455 
Professor Mary informed me in August 1915, that the campaign 
against lice began at an early date in the French army, a circular on the 
subject having been issued in October 1914 by Professor Roux and 
himself. He states that steam disinfectors were hastily improvised in 
various ways from materials at hand, stationary engines, temporarily 
disused camp kitchens on wheels, etc., being pressed into service. Very 
often two large wash-tubs, merely superposed, formed an efficient steam 
chamber. 
Barrel steam disinfectors have been extensively employed in the 
present war, one type being commonly referred to among military men 
as “Serbian barrels” because they were apparently first employed in 
Serbia. When properly managed, the temperature inside of such barrels 
attains ca. 100° C. and they constitute about the simplest form of steam 
disinfector that can be devised. A 60 gallon barrel is capable of coping 
with 4 soldiers' kits or 7 blankets at a time. The barrel, having had its 
top and bottom knocked out, is provided with a grated wooden bottom 
and a flat wooden lid which can be weighted if necessary with stones. 
The barrel may be used in various ways: 
(a) A short trench is dug in the ground of such a size as to accommo¬ 
date a shallow circular boiler with adequate space for a fire beneath. The 
boiler rests on a couple of iron bars traversing the trench. The boiler 
should possess a diameter corresponding to that of the bottom of the 
barrel which rests on top of it. The top of the boiler should be flush with 
the ground surface or but slightly higher. It is well to smear the pit with 
clay, and to embed the barrel in clay, thus preventing the escape of steam 
where the barrel joins the boiler. A chimney is placed at the further end 
of the trench, thus completing the fireplace in which any available fuel 
may be burned. This arrangement may serve as a makeshift, but has 
drawbacks which need not be emphasized. 
( b) The barrel rests on a boiler provided with a metal stand placed in 
a pit and surrounded by a dome-shaped layer of sand and tibbin or mud 
(Fig. 14 C). Lelean (1917, pp. 111-115) points out that this dome, com¬ 
bined with the pit, economizes fuel through checking needless loss of 
heat. 
(c) A series of barrels may be placed in a row upon a narrow arched 
brick furnace (Fig. 14 D) provided with a chimney about 4 feet high at 
one end. The boilers, of the same diameter as the barrel bottom (ca. 
18 inches), are set in the brick. Sand-bag collars at each end of the barrel 
impede the escape of steam from between the barrel and boiler and 
barrel and lid. Boilers having a smaller diameter than the barrel bottom 
