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Page 13
A deep trench saves labor, and places the refuse in the most
immediately safe position, but a buried mass of refuse will take a
long time to decay; it should not be disturbed, and will taint the
adjacent soil for a long time. This is of less consequence in a merely
temporary encampment, while it might entail serious evils in
localities continuously inhabited. The following plan of trench has
been adopted as a more permanent arrangement in Indian villages, with
the object of checking the frightful evil of surface pollution of the
whole country, from the people habitually fouling the fields, roads,
streets, and watercourses. Long trenches are dug, at about one foot or
less in depth, at a spot set apart, about 200 or 300 yards from
dwellings. Matting screens are placed round for decency. Each day the
trench, which has received the excreta of the preceding day, is filled
up, the excreta being covered with fresh earth obtained by digging a
new trench adjoining, which, when it has been used, is treated in the
same manner. Thus the trenches are gradually extended, until
sufficient ground has been utilized, when they are plowed up and the
site used for cultivation. The Indian plow does not penetrate more
than eight inches; consequently, if the trench is too deep, the lower
stratum is left unmixed with earth, forming a permanent cesspool, and
becomes a source of future trouble. It is to be observed, however,
that in the wet season these trenches cannot be used, and in sandy
soil they do not answer. This system, although it is preferable to
what formerly prevailed--viz., the surface defilement of the ground
all round villages and of the adjacent water courses--is fraught with
danger unless subsequent cultivation of the site be strictly enforced,
because it would otherwise retain large and increasing masses of
putrefying matter in the soil, in a condition somewhat unfavorable to
rapid absorption. These arrangements are applicable only to very rough
life or very poor communities.
The question of the removal of kitchen refuse, manure, etc., from
barracks next calls for notice. The great principle to be observed in
removing the solid refuse from barracks is that every decomposable
substance should be taken away at once. This principle applies
especially in warm climates. Even the daily removal of refuse entails
the necessity of places for the deposit of the refuse, and therefore
this principle must be applied in various ways to suit local
convenience. In open situations, exposed to cool winds, there is less
danger of injury to health from decomposing matters than there would
be in hot, moist, or close positions. In the country generally there
is less risk of injury than in close parts of towns. These
considerations show that the same stringency is not necessarily
required everywhere. Position by itself affords a certain degree of
protection from nuisance. The amount of decomposing matter usually
produced is also another point to be considered. A small daily product
is not, of course, so injurious as a large product. Even the manner of
accumulating decomposing substances influences their effect on health.
There is less risk from a dung heap to the leeward than to the
windward of a barrack. The receptacles in which refuse is temporarily
placed, such as ash pits and manure pits, should never be below the
level of the ground. If a deep pit is dug in the ground, into which
the refuse is thrown in the intervals between times of removal, rain
and surface water will mix with the refuse and hasten its
decomposition, and generally the lowest part of the filth will not be
removed, but will be left to fester and produce malaria. In all places
where the occupation is permanent the following conditions should be
attended to:
1. That the places of deposit be sufficiently removed from inhabited
buildings to prevent any smell being perceived by the occupants. 2.
That the places of deposit be above the level of the ground--never dug
out of the ground. The floor of the ash pit or dung pit should be at
least six inches above the surface level. 3. That the floor be paved
with square sets, or flagged and drained. 4. That ash pits be covered.
5. That a space should be paved in front, so as to provide that the
traffic which takes place in depositing the refuse or in removing it
shall not produce a polluted surface.
In towns those parts of the refuse which cannot be utilized for manure
or otherwise are burned. But this is an operation which, if done
unskillfully, without a properly constructed kiln, may give rise to
nuisance. One of the best forms of kiln is one now in operation at
Ealing, which could be easily visited from London.
_The removal of excreta from houses._--The chief object of a perfect
system of house drainage is the immediate and complete removal from
the house of all foul and effete matter directly it is produced. The
first object--viz., removal of foul matter, can be attained either by
the water closet system, when carried out in this integrity; but it
could, of course, be attained without drains if there was labor enough
always available; and the earth closet or the pail system are
modifications of immediate removal which are safe. Cesspools in a
house do not fulfill this condition of immediate removal. They serve
for the retention of excremental and other matters. In a porous soil
it endangers the purity of the wells. The Indian cities afford
numerous examples of subsoil pollution. The Delhi ulcer was traced to
the pollution of the wells from the contaminated subsoil; and the soil
in many cities and villages is loaded with niter and salt, the
chemical results of animal and vegetable refuse left to decay for many
generations, from the presence of which the well water is impure.
There are many factories of saltpeter in India whose supplies are
derived from this source; and during the great French wars, when
England blockaded all the seaports of Europe, the First Napoleon
obtained saltpeter for gunpowder from the cesspits in Paris. Cesspools
are inadmissible where complete removal can be effected. Cesspits may,
however, be a necessity in some special cases, as, for instance, in
detached houses or a small detached barrack. Where they cannot be
avoided, the following conditions as to their use should be enforced:
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