SOME ASPECTS OF TROPICAL SANITATION 253 



and in pools amongst the standing crops. The Inspector had relied on the native 

 Inspector, and I had relied too implicitly on the Inspector, and meanwhile the north 

 wind was blowing anophelines half a mile and more across the river, with the results 

 stated. 



The moment things were put right at the farm the infection of the pools ceased, 

 and no more malaria troubled the troops. The motto of the British Inspector must ever 

 be, " Do not put too much trust in the native Inspector, however efficient he may 

 usually be." 



In this instance the Medical Officer of Health caught out the Sanitary Inspector, 

 so it is only fair to present the reverse side of the case. 



One morning a female Stegomyia had the impertinence to bite me on the hand in 

 my office at the Gordon College. Next day the insult was repeated. I was much 

 surprised, for we are far from the dockyard, which is, as a rule, the only place where 

 these mosquitoes are now to be found, and there only very occasionally. 



Sending at once for an Inspector, I asked him to make a careful search in the 

 grounds of the building. He did so, and he reported that he had found nothing. He 

 then expressed a wish to inspect the laboratories. I said, " By all means ; but you'll The 

 find nothing there." I followed him into our bacteriological room, and, with unerring '"sp«"°''s 



° ° revenge 



instinct, he made for a " burma," or red earthenware vessel upon a stand. " Oh," 

 I remarked, "you need not trouble to look there; it's always empty." 



"Not of mosquitoes, doctor," was his reply; and then, gentlemen, the murder was 

 out. There were soda-water bottles lying in water to keep them cool in that "burma," 

 and the water had not been changed for days, and was swarming with a lively brood 

 of Stegomyia "wrigglers" and nymphs, while new-born "imagines" were clinging to its 

 sides prior to their first flight upon the blood quest. The culprit was a clerk, who, 

 against orders, had adojited this method of storing his drinks, and had taken no precaution 

 against mosquito invasion. 



I fined him, but I had also to fine myself, for I was primarily responsible, and 

 I do not doubt but that in the Inspector's mess there was much joy over my delinquency. 

 The Inspector has to be very wide awake, for mosquitoes sometimes breed in queer places. 

 I remember a high official complaining to me that he was having a bad time with 

 Stegomyia. Mosquitoes of this genus had recently been brought into Khartoum in large 

 numbers by the river steamers, and had, I am inclined to think, been the cause of a 

 small epidemic of horse sickness. This, however, by the way. As no breeding places 

 could be discovered, I was nearly driven to the conclusion that these mosquitoes were 

 survivors of the invasion, for as you probably know, Stegomyia calopus is a long-lived 

 insect. However, I fortunately asked the Inspector, a temporary, inexperienced man, 

 if he had examined the rooms as well as the verandah. He had not done so, and further .\n unexpected 

 search revealed the presence of larvae in the water contained in small tin receptacles in breeding-place 



. '-for mosquitoes 



which the legs of the ice-chest stood as a protection against the thieving propensities 

 of ants. Eecently I found a similar state of matters in the Mess at Wau, in the 

 Bahr-El-Ghazal Province. 



One more illustration and I have done. A certain Company took up the question 

 of converting the " Sudd," that matted growth of papyrus, vossia grass, reeds and rushes, 

 into fuel, and sent a steamer and old ferry-boat south to experiment. One morning our 

 Inspector at Khartoum North rang me up in alarm and well-nigh in despair. The 

 ferry-boat had returned full of " Sudd," and full also of mosquitoes, which were flying 

 ashore in a black cloud, seeking whom they might devour. Prompt action was necessary. 



