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{
    "localId": "24325428",
    "label": "No. 28: Advice as to Camping by the British Government Sanitary Commission",
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    "id": "24325428",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "No. 28: Advice as to Camping by the British Government Sanitary Commission",
    "description": "This item is an essay that provides advice supplied by the British government's Sanitary Commission in regards to ensuring sanitary conditions in military encampments.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/24325428",
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        "Records of the American National Red Cross",
        "Reports, Essays, and Other Issuances"
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    "ocrText": "8\n5\nbowolla\nv.\ndamp state of the air within huts and tents, and induced a\na\nAtmospheric impurities, arising from overcrowding and\ntendency to fevers.*\ndefective ventilation of tents and huts, were a frequent predis-\nDeep trenching round the tent site, as already mentioned,\nposing cause of zymotic disease.\nis the best remedy ; and in the case of huts, the site should\nWere it practicable in warfare to diminish materially the\nbe isolated from the surrounding ground, and the area to be\nnumber of men sleeping in tents, it would be advisable to do\noccupied by the hut drained by a trench dug round it at\nso. But considering the limited transport at the command of\nleast a foot below the level of the floor.\nan army in the field, the injurious consequences of over-\nIf it be not practicable to drain the subsoil, and if the\ncrowding may, to a considerable extent, be obviated by a\nposition must be held, adequate provision should be made,\nfree ventilation of huts, and by improving the construction\nwith any materials at hand, for raising the beds of the men\nof tents and marquees, by introducing effectual means of\nabove the ground.\nventilation round the top of the poles.\nHuts should never be banked up with earth against the\nIn the case of huts, ridge ventilation is the most efficient.\nwood. The experience in the Crimea has shown that it is\nLime-washing huts inside, especially hospital huts, puri-\na dangerous practice, for it used to be a common cause of\nfies the air ; lime-washing of huts outside protects them, to\nfevers.+ An interior lining, even of old newspaper, affords\na certain extent, from the intense sun's rays, and keep\na much better, and at the same time a perfectly safe pro-\nthem cooler within.\ntection from drafts.\nThe usual practice of striking tents and shifting ground\nThe flooring of huts should be occasionally raised, the\nis an excellent means of avoiding the effects of saturation of\nsurface of the ground below cleansed, and quick lime and\nthe earth by emanations proceeding from the breath and\ncharcoal strewed over it.\nbodies of the men.\nFor hospital huts, an interior lining of boards, or building\na rough rubble stone wall outside, as was done in many of\ne The advice given by the commissioners in regard to the site, constructio\nand ventilation of huts, cannot be too strongly insisted upon, as these struc-\nthe regimental hospitals, affords the requisite protection\ntures are more permanent and fixed quarters than tents. Thousands of our\nfrom weather and from sun heat.\nsoldiers will live in them during the coming winter. The desire to keep them-\nselves warm, and ignorance of the vital necessity of an abundance of pure air,\ne Tents in the camps of our volunteers are at present (September, 1861,)\nwill make them unmindful of ventilation and the sickness and mortality\nuniversally crowded too closely together. No tent should ever be placed\namong our troops, from fevers, pulmonary complaints, &c., will certainly be\nwithin two full paces of another. Camp streets should never be less than five\nfearful, if the lessons of the Crimean and other wars, in this respect, are not\npaces wide. (See U. S. Army Regulations, par. 506.) These being minimum\nheeded by our commanders. No hut-barracks cught to be constructed and\ndistances, should be largely increased wherever practicable. F L. O.\nused as winter quarters, unless the site selected for them, their internal ar-\n+ The practice adopted in some of our regiments of excavating the ground\nrangement, and especially the means proposed for their ventilation, have re-\nto be covered by the tents, in order to get warmer quarters at the beginning\nceived the approval of a Board of Advice, consisting of the best engineers and\nof the cold season, is equally injurious, and ought to be strictly prohibited. A\nmedical officers attached to the force.-G. A.\nsufficient supply of blankets for the night, and great camp-fires, which purify\nthe atmosphere, dry the ground, and warm the men, by day, keeping them at\nthe same time out of their crowded and ill-ventilated shelters, are, by far, better\nmeans for making them feel comfortable than sinking the tent floor.--G. A."
}