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.

    60/310 (page 62)
    CHAPTER VI SANITATION IN BARRACKS, HUTMENTS, BILLETS AND TRANSPORT SHIPS Sanitation in barracks closely resembles that of the civilian community in that the necessary appliances are provided and maintained by the various responsible departments and only require the care of those living in barracks. There are, however, certain conditions which influence the health of the soldier in barracks as compared with the civilian. The military community consists of a selected class of young men who have undergone a rigorous medical examina- tion before enlistment and who are kept under close medical supervision during the whole of their service. The conditions under which they live are supervised and controlled by regula- tions, while practical measures for the prevention of disease can be put into force quickly and effectively. On the other hand, soldiers live a communal life and so are necessarily in closer contact with each other, with the result that there are greater opportunities for the spread of communicable diseases. In modern barracks, the standard of health of the soldier is better than that of men of similar ages in civil life, but the incidence of diseases against which there are no special preventive measures is no lower than among civilians and may even be higher. Many of the older barracks do not conform to modern hygienic standards, but for financial reasons they cannot all be replaced at once, so that it is necessary to adopt such sani- tary measures as are possible to improve the conditions in such barracks ; this can only be done by the application of a knowledge of modern methods of sanitation under varying conditions, supported by good discipline. There has been a gradual evolution in the type of barracks with improvements in design as shown below :— 1. Hollow square with barrack blocks built round a square—used before 1860. 2. Pavilion type with separate buildings spread out—as in use formerly at Chichester. 3. Half-battalion type with large connected buildings— built about 1900. . Unit type—as at Windsor and Redford. . Cubicle type—as at Windsor, designed to give each man a separate cubicle. 6. Modern 1933 type. na