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
A few instants’ exposure to an atmosphere containing a fairly high
percentage of sulphurous acid will kill any insect, whereas they will be
merely stupefied or unaffected by prolonged exposure to a weaker mixture
of the poison. I am quite aware that sulphur has been decried as almost
useless by several observers, but this is simply because they have not
used it properly; for to secure success, something must be added to the
sulphur which will make it burn quickly, and what is wanted is, in fact,
a weak firework. In well-constructed buildings the sulphur pastiles
prescribed in the second edition of my work on the “Gnats or Mosquitoes”
answer sufficiently well, but subsequent experience has shown that the
proportion of nitre is not enough to secure a sufficiently rapid
combustion to instantly flood the air with sulphurous acid, and that
nothing short of a slow burning firework, such as a Roman candle or
Bengal light, will do this in a building roofed with tiles or thatch.
Possibly it might be advantageous to raise the proportion of sulphur;
and it is undoubtedly better to pack the material as a powder in paper
cases, than to mould it into pastiles. Proper precautions against fire
must of course be taken, but in fireworks of this sort the sparks do not
fly far, and it is quite safe to use them in any ordinary room if the
precaution be taken of placing the cases under a low shield, formed of a
sheet of corrugated iron supported on four piles of bricks.
The occasional fumigation of a dwelling in this way is a useful adjunct
to the destruction of the larvæ; and where combined with proper
wire-gauze protection, after the plan described below, may be relied
upon to secure immunity from the attacks of insects, even where measures
for the destruction of larvæ are impracticable. It has the further
advantage that it is fatal not only to mosquitoes, but also to insect
pests of all sorts, such as flies, hornets, bugs, or fleas, and even to
such more awesome foes as scorpions and centipedes, all of which delight
to share the home of the dweller in tropical climes.
Mosquitoes are always greatly attracted by draperies, especially those
of dark colour, and the fact may be utilised to trap them by means of
deep bags of black gauze (_chiffon_), the mouths of which are held open
by an oval loop of cane, or some such material. Such bags, if hung up
mouth down-wards in tempting dark corners, will usually be found
swarming with mosquitoes each morning, and the insects can easily be
killed by crumpling the bag in the hands and then shaking out the dead
insects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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