and even of elegance. The military administration supplies all
the furniture and the regulation bedding, to which the inmates may add
what they like at their own expense.
_Dress._--The English authorities supply women and children with all
their linen and other clothing.
_Food._--Provisioning is a private enterprise, carried out under a
contract. The food is the same for all classes, and is unlimited in
quantity. The women are given as much as they desire of each dish. No
complaint was made concerning the food, which is wholesome and
palatable. We visited the kitchen and sampled the day's menu. Milk in
large quantities is provided for the children. The meals are served in
three well-appointed dining-rooms.
The hours for meals are:
Breakfast, from 7.30 to 8.30.
Lunch, from 12.30 to 1.80.
Supper, from 5.30 to 6.80.
_Hygiene._--Water is supplied from the town mains. Lavatories are
installed in the corridors near the dormitories. The inmates may have
hot and cold baths every day. As to laundry work, those of the first
class can have it done by their own servants or pay the third-class
women to do it.
The W.C.'s consist of movable tubs on the Turkish system, each
containing a solution of cresol. They are emptied daily by contract into
the citadel cesspool, which communicates with the main sewer of Cairo.
_Medical Care and Illnesses._--The Head Physician, Captain Scrimgeour,
comes to the camp every day; a Greek doctor also visits it four times a
week at 9 o'clock in the morning. These two doctors both speak Turkish
and Arabic fluently. Three trained nurses and an English midwife take
charge of the infirmary. As Moslems usually have very good teeth, the
services of a dentist are not often needed.
The infirmary is very commodious. It consists of a consulting-room, with
a couch for examinations; a surgery, and a sick ward.
In the infirmary register the name, the disease, the treatment and the
course of the illness are all duly noted.
When the internment camp was opened a hundred prisoners applied for
treatment daily; many had suffered great privations previous to their
capture. At the present time only 5 or 10 patients take advantage of the
doctor's visit; and these are mild cases, chiefly bronchitis,
constipation, diarrhoea, and eye affections among women and children,
and some cases of heart affections and chronic bronchitis among the old
people.
There is neither malaria, dysentery nor ty
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