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.

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    cereals and legumes by marmite. The method of using germinated pulses is given in Appendix 9. Salis.—Deficiency in the mineral salts in the body may be caused by excessive sweating, which will result in salt starvation, as it did among the troops besieged in Kut during the Great War. 2. Diseases conveyed by food Poisons such as arsenic, lead, copper, etc., may be present in food as a result of the treatment of raw foods with preservatives, accidental contamination as with rat poisons, or bad methods in canning. Worms.—Some tape worms pass a stage of their develop- ment in the form of cysts embedded in the flesh of animals. These cysts are not destroyed unless the meat is cooked thoroughly so that, when raw or insufficiently cooked meat is eaten, the cysts develop into full-grown worms in the human intestine. Pigs are very frequently infected, and the supply of pork, bacon or ham to troops must, therefore, be supervised carefully. Germs are the most common cause of diseases conveyed by food, and especially of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, dysentery, diarrhcea, cholera, undulant fever and the food poisoning group. The germs may be contained in meat or milk from diseased animals such as tubercular cows, or they may be conveyed to utensils, vegetables or other articles, or by the hands of persons, especially carriers of typhoid and dysentery, who, by their. dirty habits, infect their hands with their own excreta and fail to wash them before handling food. Food from native bazaars is usually heavily contaminated, as it is exposed to dirt, dust and flies: fruit from such places. is particu- larly dangerous, therefore only fruit which can be peeled, such as bananas and oranges, should be eaten uncooked. Vegetables, such as lettuces, which are grown on the ground manuring them with human sewage; such vegetables should not be eaten uncooked. Unsound or decomposing food, especially meat pastes, sausages and fish, contain germs and may give rise to serious outbreaks of food poisoning, particularly in hot weather when Canned food is usually safe and remains sound for a long time provided the tins are not opened. It is convenient for transport and storage, but a diet of canned food is monotonous