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 resident of a closely inhabited town can, it is needless to say, do
no more than contribute his personal mite to the general welfare in this
matter, with little chance of reaping much benefit unless his neighbours
follow his example; but with the exception of diplomatic officials and
merchants residing in places under oriental rule, where the safety of
life and property are too badly secured to admit of their living outside
town limits, it is rare for any European to be so situated, as in most
of our colonies and dependencies the European quarter of the town
consists of widely separated villas each surrounded with a garden of
some size, with generally a small hamlet of dwellings for native
servants and dependents included within its boundaries. In addition to
this, there are often open spaces, of considerable extent, between the
various “compounds” which, though not directly under one’s control, are
so far “no man’s land” that no one will interfere with any one employing
on them any of the measures required for anti-malarial sanitation, while
the most litigious municipal council is hardly likely to object to the
sprinkling of a little paraffin on the roadside puddles. In this way it
will generally be possible to effect a good deal within a radius of
three or four hundred yards of one’s dwelling, and actual experience has
shown me that if all breeding places within such limits can be rendered
harmless the number of stragglers that will stray across from places
beyond will be too small to be seriously troublesome.
In devising measures for the destruction of mosquitoes it is obvious
that while they may be attacked either in the aquatic or aerial stages
of their existence, the easily localised larvæ and pupæ will be far more
easily dealt with than the elusive flying insect, and it will be
therefore best to devote most attention to the destruction of the
former.
There are two principal methods of dealing with the insects during their
aquatic stage, _i.e._ (1) by doing away with their breeding places; (2)
by poisoning them. Of the two it is clear that the former method is,
where practicable, the more valuable, as in nearly all cases its effects
are more or less permanent. With either object in view, however, the
first step is to seek out the breeding places.
As a preliminary measure, all domestic rubbish capable of holding water,
such as disused flower-pots, empty tins, &c., should be carefully sought
out and destroyed or disposed of by throwing into some depression of the
soil which it is desired to fill in. Next, the entire surface should be
carefully inspected after a brisk shower of rain, and all such puddles
as are of manageable dimensions carefully filled in and levelled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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