662 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



2.— THE DESTRUCTION OF MOSQUITOES, FLEAS, FLIES, PEDICULI, 

 AND OTHER INSECT CARRIERS OF DISEASE. 



By J. S. PURDY, M.D., CM. (Aberd.), D.P.H. {Camb.), F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., Chief Health Officer 



for Tasmania. 



The results following crusades for the wholesale destruction of 

 mosquitoes and the extermination of malaria at Ismailia, Khartoum, 

 Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, Saigon, and Port Swettenham, organised 

 by British sanatarians, have been actually excelled by the remark- 

 able success achieved by the enthusiastic and brilliant work of 

 members of the United States Marine and Hospital Service at 

 Habanah, Laredo, New Orleans, and the zone of the Panama Canal. 

 The initial campaign on a wholesale scale was that suggested by 

 Major Ronald Ross at Ismailia in 1903, and carried out to an 

 absolutely successful conclusion under the supervision and personal 

 direction of Dr. Pressat, of the Suez Canal Company. 



On entering the Egyptian Quarantine Service in July, 1905, 

 one was not only interested in the problem of mosquito extermina- 

 tion at Ismaiha, but having to do duty by night in a mosquito 

 infested office at Port Said, was impelled for one's own comfort to 

 attempt ridding the quarantine quarters of mosquitoes. By merely 

 pouring petroleum on the fosse or cesspool in the rear of the offices, 

 recognising from observation that mosquitoes, like chickens, come 

 home, if not to roost, to breed, one speedily disproved the con- 

 tention of one's continental colleagues that it was futile to destroy 

 the larvae of mosquitos in the basement or garden of one building 

 unless all other persons in the neighbouring premises did likewise. 

 After a few weeks whilst on night duty one was not troubled except 

 by an occasional visitant from the fosse of the adjoining British 

 Consulate, and even the Arab attendants admitted an improvement 

 by remarking " quice kateer " (very good), instead of the somewhat 

 philosophical ejaculation of " malish " (never mind), with which 

 they at first heralded any suggestion to kill the " namal," a general 

 term for all insects. 



About this time Colonel H. Hamilton, I.M.S., repeated in the 

 British Medical Journal a statement originally made in the Indian 

 Medical Gazette : — " I know that Ismailia will at once rise to the 

 lips of champions of mosquito brigade operations. But the chief 

 measures were drainage and filling up pools, and if it is claimed 

 that the improvement effected is the result of destruction of mos- 

 quitoes, then I must say that my experience going through the 

 Suez Canal last December (1904) leads me to doubt it. Mosquitoes 

 abounded everywhere, and particularly in the neighbourhood of 

 Ismailia, and I was much struck by their aggressiveness during the 

 day — -no doubt Stegomyiae — whilst at night they made sleep im- 

 possible." Major Ronald Ross was easily able to show that Colonel 

 Hamilton's remarks were absolutely incorrect with reference to 

 Ismailia, which as a matter of fact is a mile distant from the Suez 

 Canal. 



