274 



SANITARY NOTES 



Return of 

 infectious 

 diseases 



Other sanitary matters call for little notice here, as the whole question of conservancy 

 was gone into very fully in our Third Report, and water-supply receives a special chapter 

 to itself, but one would record a great extension of the small incinerator system, the 

 cheap and effective type now in use being shown in Fig. 81 (jiaye 259). 



Eats in Khartoum 



Thanks to the kindness of Captain S. S. Flower, of Cairo, I am able to submit a list of 

 the species of rats existing in Khartoum. Out of twenty specimens sent. Captain Flower, 

 whose determinations were kindly confirmed by Mr. J. L. Bonhote, recognised ten as 

 Arvicanthis testicularis, a species of garden rat, eight as ^[ns norvegicus, the ship or Norway 

 rat, and two as Mus rattus, the black rat, and the principal plague carrier amongst rodents, 

 at least in India. It is probable that other species occur, but, owing to pressure of other 

 work, I have been unable to carry out further investigations in this direction. 



We have abandoned the use of ratin, and now employ, along with traps, a very useful 

 phosphorous paste which is easily handled and very deadly. So far the rats have not 

 learned to avoid it. The Sakias on the river banks appear to be the favourite homes 

 of these destructive animals, which a special brigade of four men is doing its best to reduce 

 in numbers. 



Prevalence of Infectious Diseases 



The last statistics given were those for ten months of 1907-8. 



One can now give the complete statistics for that sanitary year and also those for 

 1908-9 and 1909-10. It may be said at once that imported cases of malaria need not be 

 reported. The few sent in are, however, always entered in the books. As before, one must 

 state that too much reliance cannot be placed on these figures, but every year the returns 

 are becoming more reliable, and there is no doubt that the figures afford a very fair 

 indication of the amount of infectious disease present in the town. 



NOTIFIABLE DISEASES KEPOETE0 DURING THE YEAR FROM OCTOBER 1, 1907, 



TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1908 



The other notifiable diseases were not represented. 



