General report of the Commission appointed for improving the sanitary condition of barracks and hospitals.

  • Great Britain. Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General report of the Commission appointed for improving the sanitary condition of barracks and hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    90/350 (page 84)
    yield of existing wells over a considerable period of time. If we are to be guided by the provision made by local authorities for the wants of the civil population, about 20 gallons per head of water per diem will be required for all barrack purposes, including baths, wash-houses, &c. 1 he actual measured consumption at Knightsbridge barracks for 572 officers and men, and 383 hort.es, is 11,336 gallons per day for all purposes, or under 12 gallons a head including horses. In many barracks considerable addition could be made to the existing water supply, by collecting all the roof water into tanks. Wherever such tanks can be placed above ground it should be done to prevent the liability to infiltration by impurities, to which underground tanks are liable, and to save the trouble of raising water by hand labour. In apportioning the water supply it should be borne in mind that rain water should be supplied as far as possible to women’s wash- houses, and for baths, and ablution rooms. The addition to existing supplies for baths, drainage, latrines, urinals, &c., for none of which purposes there is at present any provision in the majority of barracks, cannot be taken at less than 3 gallons per man per day. With reference to distributing apparatus, a considerable improvement has been effected, even in many barracks where the water is not obtained from mains. Tanks, at a sufficient height above ground, and supplied from wells by force pumps worked by hand labour, are very geneially in use for supplying ablution tables by gravitation. Cook-houses, washhouses, and urinals are not unfrequently supplied in the same way ; the principle, therefore, is already in operation ; it has been found to answer well in practice, and we have recommended the extension of the principle, to include the entire water supply of barracks. It is a point worthy of consideration, however, whether in barracks of a certain size it would not be better to raise the water by means of a small steam engine to one central tank at a sufficient height above ground, or by means of a form of windmill now coming into use for supplying motive power for such purposes, and to lay the water on over the barracks. The objections to the windmill are, of course, that the tank must be of sufficient size to contain two or three days supply, and that in stormy weather, the windmill, however constructed, must require careful superintendence. The water supply of Dover barracks is raised by steam power, but this is done under circumstances where manual labour would probably be insufficient. In a matter where so much improvement is required in order to raise the water supply of barracks to the same standard as the water supply of improved towns, a considerable time must elapse before the necessary works can be carried out. The present water sources of barracks are the same as those which have been given up for many years in improved towns. The method of distribution is still in a compara- tively rude state, and the quantit}^ of water requires to be increased for sanitary purposes. These are the points which should be kept in view in dealing with this important matter. 6.—Improvements in Barrack Drainage, Latrines, and Urinals. The chief difficulty we have found in dealing with the drainage and latrine arrange- ments of barracks has been the question of drainage outlet. .Surface drainage and refuse water from ablution rooms, wash-houses, and cook-houses, is generally conveyed away in brick or pipe drains of very various dimensions and construction. Any that we have seen are vastly too large for the water they have to carry off. In one such example, we found the outlet sewer intended to convey away the rainfall together with the ablution, wash-house, and cook-house water, from a barrack of under 1,000 men, no less than 4 feet high by 2 feet 6 inches wide, the sectional area of the sewer being many times greater than necessary. In such cases where the fall is deficient, the sewers accumulate deposits, and give rise to nuisances in hot weather. This state of the superficial drainage should be remedied as repairs may be required, and in doing so more attention should be paid than has hitherto been the case to the relation which the section of every drain ought to bear to the fall, and the quantity of water it has to convey. In barracks in towns and suburbs of towns, the surface drainage usually passes into the general sj^stem of sewerage. In country barracks, the surface drainage is conveyed to the nearest river or water- course, and there discharged. In many instances, however, there is no such outlet, and the drainage is allowed to pass into stagnant ditches, which in hot weather give rise to serious nuisance not only within the barrack, but to the neighbouring houses. There are instances again in which the site is so low, and the fall consequently so insufficient, that it is hardly possible to obtain an outlet. In one such case, we have been obliged to sanction an attempt to dispose of the surface drainage of a large barrack, that at Hounslow, in regard to which serious complaints had been made, by sinking soak wells in the gravelly subsoil, at as great a distance as possible from the barrack, but we have required in this case, that the whole surface drainage should be previously