Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/223

Rh naturally paid little attention to it, until one after another of the soldiers came to me suffering from the same symptoms. Now, at the beginning of the rains, when the water supply is very liable to contamination, diarrhoea is by no means uncommon, but at this time, curiously, there were no cases of this dysenteric diarrhoea among the civil population, so that it was clear that the cause was one confined to the troops. I had thought at first that some of the men had been drinking water in the town, but I was able practically to exclude this. The drinking water of the native population is derived from shallow surface wells, from 4 ft. to 8 ft. deep, and as Bathurst is simply a sand bank, the water is often brackish, and the men did not like it, after being accustomed to the pure rain-water. I need hardly say that the water in these wells is very much polluted, as you often find a cesspit a few feet away.

I had, then, to seek the cause in the barracks, and I must confess that after the precautions which had been taken with reference to the tanks, I did not at first examine the water very carefully. I had a bucketful run off, and it appeared clear, sparkling, and had no bad taste or odour. An enquiry into the food supply and a careful inspection showed nothing wrong ; the men absolutely denied having eaten or drunk anything outside which could have disagreed with them, and the barrack-rooms and latrine arrangements were in a perfect sanitary condition, so by a process of exclusion I was driven back to the water. I had one of the manholes taken off one of the tanks, a bucket sunk to the bottom, tilted over and dragged along; I then found that there appeared to be some sediment. With some reluctance—for one does not like to waste good drinking water in Bathurst— I gave instructions that the water should be run off, and I found at the bottom a deposit of greenish-grey mud, in which I observed some spindle- shaped bodies, about the size and shape of oats, but