Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/222



small epidemic to which the title of this note refers occurred a number of years ago, when I was Chief Medical Officer of the Gambia. There was at that time a company of the West India Regiment stationed there, and as there was no Army medical officer available, I was for a considerable period the medical officer in charge, and it was among the men of this company that the outbreak occurred. It took place in the early part of the rainy season—that is to say, the weather was still fine and clear, but there were occasional heavy showers of rain. The men lived in large barracks, which formed two sides of a large square, and though old, they were clean, and on the whole in good sanitary condition. It is important to note that the water supply of the troops was derived solely from rain-water, which was stored in large iron tanks. Towards the end of the dry season, as the tanks became empty, they had been thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed inside, while the inlet pipes had been disconnected until the first shower had washed the collecting area, which was the barrack roofs. At the time of the outbreak the tanks were pretty well filled.

One day a man presented himself to me at the hospital, complaining of griping pains and diarrhoea, with a certain amount of blood in the motions. There was very little constitutional disturbance, very little tenesmus, and none of the serious signs of an attack of acute dysentery. I