CONDITIONS INFLUENCING PREVALENCE 197 



or the modern engineer with his steam navy, the result i& 

 the same less or more, viz., depressions of the surface, and 

 hence puddles, and it cannot be too often insisted upon 

 that it is the small, unnoticed puddle close to the dwelling, 

 and not the large, but distant marsh or pond, that, for 

 practical purposes, is the real nursery of malaria. The 

 large tank or tanks that are to be found in almost every 

 Indian village are generally far too dirty for the taste of 

 even the none too particular Indian species of Anopheles, 

 but with us, as with most semi-civilised communities, mud 

 forms not only the main material of domestic architecture, 

 but also of house decoration. At frequent intervals the 

 careful Indian housewife smears the interior of her home 

 and the little platform before it with a mixture of mud and 

 the dung of the sacred cow, and the result is certainly to 

 give an appearance of cleanliness that could hardly be other- 

 wise obtained for so small an expenditure. In Zululand, 

 and, I believe, generally among African tribes, the same 

 mixture is employed. But though the Hindu lady likes to 

 keep her house neat in this way, both she and the goodman 

 are tolerant of untidy surroundings to an extent that will be 

 scarcely believed in Europe, and the result is that the ground 

 round the house soon becomes honeycombed with small 

 excavations, which in the rains get filled with fairly clean 

 water. Nor is the European one whit less blameworthy. 



Apart from the special malaria-brewing tanks already des- 

 cribed, with which most of our gardens are furnished, there 

 will be found close to every building, whether it be the 

 cottage of the Eurasian clerk or the imposing barrack or 

 law court, an excavation of corresponding dimensions, from 

 which has been taken the earth for its plinth ; and rarely 

 or never is any attempt made to fill up or drain the 

 hollow so formed. 



Further, as the surroundings of European dwellings 

 and official buildings are usually kept fairly clean, the results 

 to the inmates, as far as malaria is concerned, are even 

 worse than those of the tanks that have originated in the 

 same way round a native village. 



The results of public works are equally disastrous on a 



