CONDITIONS INFLUENCING PKEVALENCE 229 



present customs as to the times of opening and closing 

 them, as we now plan these so as to keep out, not mos- 

 quitoes, but Hies, the habits of which are the very antithesis 

 of those of mosquitoes. 



At present they are kept more or less carefully closed 

 during the day, and are rolled up at night. From an hour 

 or two after sunrise till sunset, it little matters as regards 

 Mosquitoes what is done with them, as the insects settle 

 themselves down for their day's rest as soon as the sun is 

 well up, and will not leave the shelter they have chosen 

 unless they are obliged ; but at night every aperture must 

 be carefully guarded and especially the period from 4 to 6 

 a.m. In the early evening dusk it is better to have every- 

 thing opened, as just then Mosquitoes, if they can, leave 

 the house to obtain vegetable food, but for all the rest of 

 the darkness and dusk the more thoroughly a house can be 

 kept Mosquito-proof the better. 



It will be a long time, however, before Mosquito-proof 

 houses become at all common in India, and for the present 

 most of us will have to be content with Mosquito curtains. 

 A compromise between the two would, however, be well 

 within most people's resources, and far better than the 

 stuffy old nets, which, in spite of my firm conviction of 

 their necessity, are well nigh intolerable during " a break in 

 the rains." For this reason no plan will ever be generally 

 adopted in India which cannot be combined with the use 

 of the punkah, and with the old-fashioned forms of the 

 latter this is most difficult, though the handy little electric 

 fans can be worked in almost any position. Unfortunately, 

 power of this sort can be obtained in very few places, but 

 it might be possible to employ the punkah coolies in work- 

 ing a small dynamo instead of pulling the rope ; though the 

 difficulty of getting any small defect remedied would still 

 remain in all but the largest stations. A settled resident 

 would find it simplest to make his sleeping apartment insect 

 proof, but the vagabond official requires some contrivance 

 that he can carry about with him with his other furniture 

 when " transferred." For this I would suggest a portable 

 miniature room formed of light wooden frames filled with 



