Army manual of hygiene and sanitation, 1934 / [War Office].

Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Army manual of hygiene and sanitation, 1934 / [War Office]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    126/310 (page 128)
    Field slaughier-house A slaughter-house, or any place used as such, should be secluded but under close supervision. The floor should be - cement or hard oiled ground sloping towards a central drain which should have some form of trap or strainer to catch solids, liquids being collected in a metal receptacle and buried in specially prepared pits. The receptacle for liquids should be kept above ground level and so placed that removal is easy ; it should never be placed in a sump pit. Offal, hides and bones, if not removed by a contractor, should be burnt in a closed incinerator or buried. When they are burnt, a supply of fuel is essential ; when they are buried; a — series of pits should be used and the offal covered with at least 3 feet of earth treated with heavy oil and well rammed down. Carcasses The problem of how to dispose of dead animals may assume serious proportions on active service. Burial is slow and laborious, a pit 10 feet deep being required for a dead horse, so that, when many carcasses have to be disposed of, it is unlikely that the burial of all of them will be possible, although the presence of large shell holes may solve the problem. The belly and intestines of a dead animal should be opened before the carcass is covered so as to allow of the escape of gases caused by putrefaction. Burning is equally difficult except in a special destructor ; the carcass of a mule, for instance, requires 80 pounds of hay or straw, 80 pounds of wood and 2 gallons of kerosene oil for complete destruction. The usual course is to adopt a combined method of burial and burning. ‘This consists of removing the carcass to a — distance from a camp, cutting open the belly and chest and removing the intestines and internal organs, which are then buried in a pit nearby. The body cavity is then filled with hay or straw and set on fire ; this will not consume the carcass, but it will assist in drying it up and lessening the evils con- sequent on its gradual subsequent decay. 40 pounds of hay or straw and 1 gallon of kerosene oil are required for dealing with the carcass of one mule by this method. The carcasses of animals dying from communicable disease should be burned whole or buried in a pit containing quick- lime.