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
It must be remembered, however, that it has been long a matter of
popular belief in the Campagna that malaria was, in some way, caused by
mosquitoes; and it is the difficulty of convincing those in high
authority of this fundamental fact that is at the root of the
indifference and inertia which oppose all attempts at amelioration in
India and in many of our colonies.
During the first two years’ experiments on the Campagna, out of 25
protected cottages, with a population of 173 persons, only 8 persons
contracted malarial fever; while in 30 unprotected cottages, having a
population of 220, only 17 escaped the disease; although the protected
and unprotected cottages were, as far as possible, paired as regards the
site, and were otherwise of a uniform plan of construction, and all
inhabited by the same class of railway subordinates.
The system is the one above all others most suited for adoption by
private persons, because it secures an almost complete immunity in spite
of the most unfavourable surroundings, and renders the user quite
independent of the sanitary lapses of his neighbours; but in spite of
this, the plan is almost ignored in our English colonies and
dependencies, though the writer has recently received an interesting
communication from a medical man practising in China who has adopted it
with signal success.
Professor Celli’s plan consists in rendering habitations impervious to
the entry of insects by closing all openings with wire gauze (mesh of
about 12 strands to the inch). All windows, as well as such doors as
only serve as such, and are not absolutely required for ingress and
exit, are permanently closed by frames covered with the gauze, and all
indispensable exterior doors are fitted with _double_ spring doors of
the same material, sufficiently separated from each other to secure the
closure of the first door before the second can be opened.
In most Tropical residences, the number of doors is far in excess of
actual needs, it being nothing uncommon to find rooms with four or five
doors, all opening in the exterior. Though desirable and even necessary
for free ventilation, no room can possibly require more than a single
door opening on the outside, and in a well-planned house with suitable
corridors, there is no real necessity for more than one or two exterior
doors to the whole house. All outside doors, then, not absolutely
necessary as such, should be treated as windows and permanently closed
with single frames of wire gauze, so that the number of the more
expensive double spring doors may be reduced to a minimum. In Tropical
climates it is, however, essential that a considerable area of verandah
should be included within the protected area, as a good deal of time is
necessarily most pleasantly spent in the verandah, not only in the
evening, but during the rains throughout the whole day. On this account
a northern verandah should be the one selected for protection in this
way.
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