THE SANITARY AWAKENING OF INDIA 185 



protection from pollution. For further details I must refer the 

 reader to the Annual Reports of the Sanitary Commissioner 

 with the Government of India and to the various Blue Books 

 presented to the House of Commons, and I shall devote the 

 remainder of this article to a description of the work done by 

 the General Malarial Committee and the Indian Research Fund, 

 and to an account of the inauguration of the All-India Sanitary 

 Conferences and the reorganisation of the sanitary services. 



The General Malarial Committee owes its origin to the Im- 

 perial Malarial Conference held at Simla in October 1909. Its 

 duties are the direction and co-ordination of investigations and 

 the selection, at the request of local Governments, of officers 

 qualified for carrying out such investigations. A similar 

 organisation, working in consultation with this Central Com- 

 mittee, is constituted in each province, and a conference consist- 

 ing of the members of the Central Committee and a delegate or 

 delegates from each local organisation is held annually at such 

 place as may be convenient for the purpose of reviewing the 

 work done and preparing a programme of future work. Up to 

 the present three conferences have been held, namely at Simla 

 in 1909, at Bombay in 191 1 and at Madras in 1912, and the fourth 

 conference will be held at Lucknow in January 1914. The value 

 of these conferences has been proved by the interesting nature 

 of the discussions that have taken place, by the opportunities 

 afforded to delegates of studying malaria under varying condi- 

 tions, by the stimulus given to original work, and by the valuable 

 resolutions that have been passed and brought to the notice of 

 Government. It is not necessary to give all these resolutions 

 in detail, but the following summary of the conclusions arrived 

 at may be of interest : 



(1) Careful malarial surveys such as those made by Robert- 

 son and Graham in Saharanpur, Kosi and Nagina, and researches 

 in the field such as those carried out by Bentley in Bombay and 

 Christophers in the Andamans, prove the value of preliminary 

 scientific investigation, and point to the probability that anti- 

 mosquito measures may not prove so costly as was at one time 

 feared. Moreover, although further research and expert in- 

 vestigation is still necessary, enough is known of the breeding 

 habits of mosquitos, etc., to make it frequently possible for 

 trained workers to deal with malaria in an efficient manner. 



(2) Quinine prophylaxis, applied to a free population, is 



