G. H. F. Nuttall 
571 
Baths in connection with Disinfestation Stations. 
The relation of the bath to the general procedure of disinfesting men 
has already been discussed (pp. 560 et seq.). A few remarks are here inter¬ 
posed regarding bathing arrangements. The reader is referred to p. 567 
for a description of a simple method employed in Egypt under desert con¬ 
ditions, each man being allowed 20 minutes for his ablutions, including 
2 minutes under the shower. For heating bath water in a home-camp, 
Copeman (1915, p. 247) employed 200 gallon galvanized iron tanks 
resting on bricks set with puddled clay over a trench in which a fire 
was made, the smoke escaping through a chimney placed at the end of 
the trench; the water boiled after an hour and was carried in buckets 
from the tank to tubs placed in a tent. 
Bath tubs for use by single persons will usually be used in private 
institutions. Where facilities are limited, the verminous subject may 
remove his underclothes in the empty tub, boiling water being there¬ 
after poured upon them to kill the lice; the clothes can then be trans¬ 
ferred to a receptacle and the bathing of the individual proceeded with. 
Bath tubs of graded sizes, arranged to fit into each other so as to 
occupy little space, have been used in a limited way in the armies at war, 
especially for the wounded. They cannot be used on a large scale because 
of transportation difficulties and the amount of water required; some of 
them are provided with a small portable boiler. 
Large tubs or soaking vats in which several men can bathe at a time 
have been used in connection -with stations, especially where these have 
been established in disused factories where they are at times found ready 
to hand. The vats may be of wood or brick and cement, the latter 
measuring say 10 x 6 x 2 feet (deep) are filled only up to a depth of 
about a foot with warm water to facilitate its frequent renewal. The 
men soak in the vats before soaping themselves down and seeking the 
shower-bath, hence the water in the vats may become rapidly dirty 
(Moor and Cooper, 1918, pp. 92-96). 
Shower-baths have largely solved the difficulties due to transport and 
limited water-supply in dealing with large numbers of men that have to 
be bathed at frequent intervals. Excellent movable shower-baths were 
devised early in the war for use in the French army. In some cases the 
water is carried in barrels on railway trucks stationed at sidings, at other 
times the barrels are conveyed on carts, in both cases the showers 
projecting over the sides along which the men stand on grated plat¬ 
forms whilst performing their ablutions in the open, when the weather 
Parasitology x 37 
