CONDITIONS INFLUENCING PREVALENCE 233 



enough for practical purposes, might be built for the sum, 

 but the executive engineer would have no choice than to 

 reject it if tendered him by a contractor. 



There can be no doubt, however, that the provision of 

 really healthy quarters for officials, as commodious as the 

 large but ill-planned bungalows now obtainable, would be 

 really a most remunerative investment even if the direct 

 returns fell short of the requirements of the Accountant- 

 General. Every station has its "Fever Hall," most 

 several, with generally no alternative accommodation ; and 

 in one year I have seen three consecutive officers invalided 

 from a fever trap of this sort, none of whom had the least 

 desire to take leave, while the sum disbursed to them as 

 ineffective pay would have easily rebuilt the pestilential 

 hovel. Where, however, any choice can be exercised, a 

 house with an upper story should be selected, as Mosquitoes 

 never fly high, and even this amount of elevation affords 

 considerable protection. 



The writer once built, on the flat concrete roof of the 

 house he occupied, a large grass hut, which was used by 

 himself and family right through the rainy season as a 

 sleeping apartment. Although fitted with punkahs, they 

 were never used, as while our neighbours were sweltering 

 through the night under them in the steamy, but sun-baked 

 houses, we were able to obtain refreshing rest in spite of 

 our Mosquito nets. This was long before the etiology of 

 malaria had been solved, and the fact that we not only 

 escaped fever but were all singularly healthy was a matter 

 of constant wonder to them, as to sleep in such a situation 

 in the wet weather was looked upon as a certain invitation 

 to fever. As a matter of fact, however, a hut of this sort, 

 or a verandah, if deep enough to shelter from the drift of a 

 shower, is not a bit damper than the inside of a house, and 

 the only reason why to sleep in the latter is so notoriously 

 dangerous is that they swarm with Mosquitoes more thickly 

 than either within the house or in the open. 



Given adequate protection from the bites of infected 

 Mosquitoes, it is far more healthy to sleep in such situations, 

 and so gain refreshing sleep with comparative coolness and 



