Armstrong – Table of Contents

temperature 100F or above, following which the articles were allowed to dry. The
applicants’ heads were next thoroughly washed with a mixture of equal parts of kerosene
and dilute acetic acid. The males, who would submit, had their hair cut. About 15%
permitted it. There were two bathing tents, one for men and the other for women and
children. Another tent was reserved as a dressing tent for women. These tents were in
charge of male and female attendants who were immune to typhus. In the tents, the
clothes were removed completely, placed individually in separate sacks, which were then
thrown out of the tents and taken by another attendant to the steam sterilizers. Shoes,
belts, hats and other articles damageable by heat were sprayed with a 1:500 nicotine
sulfate solution.
The unclothed Indians next proceeded to the shower bath where, under the
supervision of an attendant, their heads and bodies were thoroughly washed with soap
and water. Initially, a special soap, prepared by boiling 1 part of soap chips in 4 parts of
water with the addition of 2 parts of kerosene, was the detergent. This mixture, used in
the preliminary bathing, was diluted 1:4 with water. After this preliminary bath, they
bathed in an ordinary bath of soap and water. They then received rough towels to dry
themselves off followed by a sheet for cover until their own sterilized clothes became
available.
The sanitation team conducted delousing stands at 5 places accessible to the entire
reservation district except for a portion of the reservation in Utah that apparently had
remained free of infection. The team deloused each of the infected areas two or three
times at intervals of approximately 20 days. The team terminated the delousing campaign