Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology: A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.Giles, George Michael James
Science
Climate and Health in Hot Countries and the Outlines of Tropical Climatology: A Popular Treatise on Personal Hygiene in the Hotter Parts of the World, and on the Climates That Will Be Met Within Them.
Giles, George Michael James
Hygiene -- Popular works; Medical climatology; Tropical medicine
Perhaps our most effective agency in dealing with adult mosquitoes
depends on the intense objection all species of these insects entertain
to smoke.
That it is quite possible to effectually protect animals from mosquito
bites by the agency of smoke alone, has recently been conclusively shown
in the course of Mr. Power’s experiments on the prevention of horse
sickness in South Africa; but, though most semi-civilised people seem to
live comfortably enough in a smoky atmosphere, Europeans would find such
a state of things intolerable; and the plan can only be utilised to
drive mosquitoes out of houses, other methods being relied on to prevent
their re-entering. Smoke from almost any source will put mosquitoes to
flight, and if sufficiently intense will stupefy them; but certain
special materials must be burnt if it is desired to kill them outright,
and our _modus operandi_ must be varied according to the means at our
disposal, for if we can only expect to annoy the insects sufficiently to
drive them out of doors, the latter must be left open during the
fumigation; whereas, if it is proposed to kill them, all openings must
be closed as completely as possible, so that the fumes may reach the
insects in as concentrated a form as possible.
For simply driving out mosquitoes, any fuel that produces a dense smoke,
such as damp straw, will serve. Maize cobs are excellent for the
purpose, but probably the least objectionable is the burning of a little
incense (Hindustani, _Lobán_). To actually kill them, on the other hand,
it is necessary to shut up all openings as closely as possible, and to
burn certain special substances, such as sulphur, unopened chrysanthemum
flowers, the leaves of the neem tree, tobacco, &c., and the degree of
success attained will vary a good deal according to the character of the
building in which it is attempted; it being obviously extremely
difficult to secure an adequate concentration of the fumes in a very
pervious structure, like a house with a thatched roof and walls of
bamboo matting, such as is often met with in Burmah and the Malay
Archipelago. Under such circumstances, the rapid burning of a large
amount of the fumigating agent is the only way of meeting the
difficulty; and under any conditions, plain sulphur, simply ignited as a
powdered mass, or placed on the hot coals of a charcoal brazier, burns
so slowly as to be quite useless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account