20G GNATS OR MOSQUITOES — CHAPTER VIII 



Judging from descriptions, this effect should be more 

 marked in Chinese cities than in other tj'pes of oriental 

 civiHsation ; but whatever it may amount to, the advan- 

 tage must be purchased at too high a price. 



When, however, the Indian townsman is driven to 

 overcrowding by special local conditions, he packs with a 

 closeness that puts the Western slum-dweller to shame, and 

 an enormous population may be concentrated in an area too 

 small to be beyond the influence of the nearest breeding 

 places even in its most central parts. 



There are, for example, parts of Bombay where the 

 densit}'^ of population probably exceeds that of the worst 

 European slums, but the dimensions of this " congested 

 area " are not considerable. 



As, however, the domestic interiors are usually too 

 unsavoury to furnish nurseries for the really dangerous 

 species, it is certain that the paving and draining of our 

 large towns will do much to diminish municipal malaria. 



A good deal indeed has been done, and is in progress in 

 this direction, but as the constantly recurring phrase of 

 conventional Indian self-depreciation has it, " We are very 

 poor folk," and improvements that appear the simplest 

 necessities of urban sanitation to the European expert are 

 quite beyond the pockets of the community, however 

 enlightened the views of the Government may be. 



The paving of streets and the introduction of systematic 

 surface drainage are of course large and costly undertakings, 

 which can only be carried out gradually, but it must not be 

 supposed that nothing can be done in the mean time. 



Nine-tenths of the nurseries of Anopheles larvse that I 

 have met with within municipal limits are of such small 

 dimensions that they miglit be put an end to by means of 

 a few shovels-full of earth, and a few men trained to 

 systematically fill up the puddles as they formed might 

 undoubtedly do a good deal to diminish municipal malaria. 



Such a measure is of course rather of the category to 

 which belongs chemical disinfection, than to that of radical 

 prevention, for I am perfectly aware that new puddles 

 would form as fast as the old ones were filled up, but these 

 could do no harm if filled up in their turn. 



I 



