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
The low-necked, sleeveless dresses worn by ladies in the evening must,
we can well understand, be very temptingly cool wear in the climates
with which we are dealing, but are obviously extremely dangerous, as
they leave a large surface of the person exposed at the very time when
mosquitoes are most active. A dress covering these parts should be
therefore substituted, which, however, may safely be made of the
lightest materials, provided that it be so puffed or otherwise
“confectioned” as to make it difficult for a mosquito to get within
reach of the skin. Mosquitoes are always fond of collecting under
tables, as they are there sheltered from the glare of the lamps, and on
this account it is advisable for men to wear straps to their trousers
when dressing for dinner; and though the plan is a very old-fashioned
one, I have some hope that the suggestion may meet the approval of our
better halves, as, whatever its real object, the adoption of the plan
certainly gives the wearer the air of having sacrificed comfort to
appearances.
There would, however, be no need of modifying costume for indoor wear in
any way were houses properly protected against the entrance of
mosquitoes by means of suitably planned wire-gauze protection to all
openings.
The plan in question was devised by Professor A. Celli, the Principal of
the Institute of Hygiene in the University of Rome, and in Italy at
least has long passed its experimental stage; though, owing probably to
the small number of Englishmen who are familiar with the Italian
language, it appears to be practically ignored even by our specialists
on the subject.
Within a few miles of the great city of Rome there are large areas where
malaria, far more virulent than the type of disease we usually meet with
in India, is so rife that, during the malarious months, the country is
practically deserted by all but a few necessary railway officials and
caretakers. Amongst the former the mortality and invaliding used to be
so heavy that the working of the lines was a matter of the greatest
difficulty.
The majority of the peasantry, being only temporary inhabitants, live in
grass huts not a whit in advance of those of the savages of Central
Africa, and from the migratory nature of their employment, are among the
most ignorant and backward of the Italian populace, and so about the
last people likely to lend themselves to the adoption of any
“new-fangled” custom. As a matter of fact, however, the object lesson of
the advantages of the system have been so obvious that, after the first
year, there has been no difficulty in securing the eager co-operation of
the simple railway men and scarce civilised farm hands. As the system is
necessarily being very gradually introduced, there are plenty of
unprotected houses for comparison, and after personally conversing with
the inhabitants, the writer found that all who had enjoyed the benefits
of the plan were convinced of its efficacy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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