182 GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER VIII 



All considered, I fear that great as is the solace of a shady 

 garden to the eye jaded with the fierce glare of a tropical 

 sun, it is a most undesirable adjunct to a residence, alike 

 for health and comfort, for besides sheltering and in every 

 way fostering the multiplication of Mosquitoes, whether 

 simply irritating or noxious, the trees, which practically 

 never shield the house from the direct rays of the sun, cut 

 off the breeze and so interfere with that free ventilation, 

 which is a sine qua non of tolerable existence. 



Finally, it must be remembered that trees are in some 

 way capable of modifying the climate of a locality by 

 increasing the rainfall. How or why they are capable of 

 doing so is by no means clear, but the connection is 

 generally admitted, and some recent observations in India 

 appear to show that such an effect may be produced within 

 the limits of a comparatively restricted area. While they, 

 however, generally favour malaria, Celli justly points out, 

 (C. M., p. 142) that trees should be respected on hilly 

 ground, as by retarding the rapidity of drainage they tend 

 to prevent the flooding of the plains below by heavy rain- 

 falls on the hills. 



Assuming then it to be possible to chose the site of a 

 tropical residence, it should certainly be placed on open 

 ground, and coolness and rest for the eye should be aimed 

 at by surrounding it with a stretch of well- watered grass, 

 the watering being conducted on some plan that does not 

 involve the use of tanks and other collections of standing 

 water ; but such a plan is always difdcult and expensive, and 

 is in many parts of India, impossible. 



The presence of thickets and undergrowth has long been 

 recognised as favourable to malaria. Growths of this sort 

 sufliciently luxuriant to be unmanageable, in and about 

 inhabited sites, presuppose a moist climate, free from the 

 extreme heat of the drier parts of the tropics, and in which 

 the habitations ahke of Europeans and natives are con- 

 structed with an eye rather to the freest possible ventilation 

 than to keeping out the heat ; so that as far as that is con- 

 cerned, there is little to choose between the shade of a tree 

 and the best built of bungalows. 



