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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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CO885/25

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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has appeared less objectionable to patients, and been unattended with any uncomfortable symptoms. Further trials are being made with it.

A second batch of recruits for Imperial service were taken in hand late in January. The examinations show a high degree of infection, 75 per cent. as against 67.2 per cent. in the first lot. The difference is accounted for by the fact The percentage that more natives of the Colony were recruited on this occasion. would have been even higher but several that enlisted had been cured in area of the previous half-year.

The racial immunity enjoyed by the black-skinned peoples from the extreme ravages of the disease are here amply shown. These men represent the able-bodied youth of the Colony, chosen for their physical fitness and freedom from other diseases. Only in a single instance among the ninety-six infections was a patient turned down for his infection. As on the previous occasion, I am indebted to the assistance of the officers and instructors in carrying out the treatments satisfac- torily. I experienced greater opposition from the men of the present batch.

The work of the past year completes Castries town except the eastern borders of the Chausseé and a depth inward of one hundred and sixty feet, which consti- tutes the town boundary. The portion of the town worked in July-December, 1915, had a population of 2,642, of whom 2,523 were examined, 671, or 266 per cent., infection; during this half-year the section had a population of 2,812, of whom 2,695 were examined, with 692, or 256 per cent., infection; on both occasions the dividing line has run from west to east. The infection north and south of the line has been almost the same. Had the dividing line run north and south there would have been a greater disparity in the percentage of infection, the streets entirely at the east end of the town having as high a percentage as 389 per cent. I have no doubt that the eastern side of the Chaussee will closely approximate the adjoining suburban areas, which show a steady increase as we get farther away from the

town.

The eastern end of the town is inhabited by persons entirely of the working Many have gardens farther class, who wear no foot gear except on Sundays. inland, where they reside for days at a time. Their infection may be contracted at their gardens, but there is no doubt that, despite the inspections carried out by the Town Board constables and sanitary inspectors, there is a large amount of soil contamination in the yards and precincts of the town; and more so in the plots immediately outside the boundaries. Supervision and inspection practically ceases at the town boundary. In the suburban section under work this half-year the sanitary survey continues to show an absence of all hygienic rules.

The occupants of the houses immediately abutting the town claimed that they It is hard to prove the contrary, though one is make use of the sewage boat. morally sure that only those who can afford the luxury make use of this system of disposal. The others, with four exceptions, owned up to surface contamination or disposal into the Castries River or the small gorges whose storm water is emptied into the river. The four exceptions had earth closets, and I was satisfied of the disposal by burial. The Castries River is largely used for the washing of clothes, but so freely is the water polluted that no respectable person would permit his have known instances where the clothes to be sent to the river with his consent. washerwoman has carried out her dirty utensil under cover of the clothes to dump its contents in clumps of bamboos along the river bank.

cure.

It has been easier to handle the suburban population medically with a view to The results obtained were very satisfactory; of 291 infections it was possible to treat 284, of whom 274 were cured, one only abandoned treatment, while the remaining nine, I have no doubt, will be cured during the present month.

A greater resistance and difficulty was encountered among the labouring class in the town. The migratory habits, procrastinations, and lack of all sense of responsibility to themselves, offspring, and neighbours, of the West Indian negro We have labourer are too well known to those whose work is thrown among them. followed them from pillar to post, and have at times only succeeded in our efforts when they have been laid by their heels in the Royal Jail.

It is quite another matter to induce the country folk to make provision for a satisfactory disposal of their excreta. You have to be at them unceasingly. I have been able to install fifty-two pit-latrines in the suburban section of this half-year, and increased from ninety-nine to one hundred and twenty in the area of the previous campaign.

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Though one is willing to render every assistance, and properly constructed fly-proof boxes are given freely from the office, they are ever ready with excuses for delay. It was to overcome this trouble that I asked the Board of Health to frame the additional regulations, appendix D, making it compulsory for every tenanted house to be provided with a closet, privy, or latrine, to be maintained in a condition satisfactory to the Board. If the occupant fails to listen to prolonged moral persuasion then a notice is served on him to make the necessary provision in a fortnight.

I trust, without any harshness, to be able during this half-year to have nearly all the houses in the outskirts of Castries fulfilling the requirements of this by-law. This is not a hard and fast compulsion for the installation of pit-latrines; but it does compel every occupied house outside of the town to be provided with a satis- factory outbuilding where the human excreta may be disposed of either permanently or temporarily. It will obviate the keeping of dirty utensils in or under the living rooms. If the outbuilding is for temporary disposal the utensil will be con- tained, as an earth closet, in a fly-proof box, and the contents ultimately disposed of to the satisfaction of the sanitary inspector. This provision is very necessary; where the houses are on low-lying land immediately abutting the town limits, and where in all probability an installation of individual pit-latrines may be inadvis- able. These houses may now with greater certainty and security be privileged to effect a disposal through the sewage boat; they can be more easily supervised and watched; or where the houses are more numerous and where facilities offer for a central dumping depot the utensils may be emptied in that depot.

It has been suggested that the Government should form one such central depot for the Marchand area; a spot in the old unused cemetery was to be chosen and a depot erected and maintained under the sanitary authority; houses within a half- mile were to be allowed to use this depot. I have undertaken as soon as this depot is ready for use to close up all the pit-latrines I have had installed in the area of its service, and to transform what was an outbuilding for permanent, into one of a temporary, disposal.

In my opinion similar outbuildings are required for the houses in the Four- a-chaux, where His Honour the Administrator has been good enough to have two latrines erected. These latrines, for male and female, are built over the sea, con- nected with the shore by a causeway. They are fitted with buckets, whose contents are emptied and taken out to sea. It was, of course, hoped that they would be freely used by both sexes. But here, too, as almost entirely throughout the Colony, the ingrained use of the pot de chambre among the females has transformed the latrine into a dumping depot. Even as such it is an immense advantage over the condition that previously existed.

The erection of closets, privies, and latrines, and their unceasing super- vision, will not lead us to a successful issue unless we can educate up the genera- tions to their unfailing use. To a class of people who are taught from their earliest youth to relieve themselves in the bush, and whose common term for defeca- tion is en rasier," ie., to go in the bush, it is necessary for us to counter-attack by more satisfactory and complete latrine accommodation at the primary schools, infant and juvenile. It is very disappointing to see the children on their way to school performing their toilet on the public high roads, under culverts and bridges. Progress in sanitation may be measured by the condition of the roads.

At the present time I am engaged with His Honour the Administrator in- devising some means of perfecting the accommodation among the schools, and trust to be able at a later date to make a report thereon.

I have, &c.,

His Honour

The Administrator.

STANLEY BRANCH,

Medical Officer in Charge Hookworm Eradication Campaign.

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