December 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



241 



at the Indian Medical Congress held at Bombay in 

 1908. It was therefore a wise decision on the part of 

 the Government of India, on the termination of the 

 Simla anti-malarial Conference of 1909, to depute a 

 sjpecial committee of inquiry on this subject. The 

 officers selected were the Hon. Mr. Nathan, I.C.S., 

 Colonel Thornhill, I. A., and Major Leonard Rogers, 

 I. M.S. Whilst all its deductions cannot be accepted, 

 this committee has produced a report which, though 

 omitting important details, is a remarkable product 

 of a single month's work. The experimenting 

 officers, ^Iajor James and Captain Christophers, 

 apparently elected to test statements made by 

 Major Ross, and regarded Mean Mir as a suitable 

 locality for this object. Of several typical extracts 

 from his publication and speeches quoted in the report 

 as justifying their methods, the following is selected 

 as of the most definite nature : — 



"It is now a matter of the general experience of many 

 investigators that where mosquitoes abound in a house 

 their larvae can easily be found at a short distance, say 

 within a few hundred jards of the house. Occasionally, 

 where the house is isolated and no stagnant water is in 

 its immediate vicinity, mosquitoes may attack it from a 

 greater distance ; but this is exceptional, and in the great 

 majority of cases, especially in towns, almost every house 

 breeds its own mosquitoes in its backyards or in puddles 

 or drains in the streets close by." 



To meet the necessities of a test experiment guided 

 by such very general data, it would have been well, 

 whilst relying upon the importance of the observation 

 as to pools in the vicinity of houses, also to have 

 ascertained from the authority concerned what he 

 implied by a '"few hundred yards" of the house 

 and even "a greater distance"; especially as by mak- 

 ing pools unfit for the reception of larvae by " oiling " 

 in the neighbourhood of houses, there was fulfilled — 

 so far as the mosquito is concerned — the condition 

 that " no stagnant water " be available in that posi- 

 tion. 



The area selected by Major James was an oblong 

 — and not an isolated — portion of two square miles 

 of the total of eight square miles of the cantonment 

 of Mean Mir, whilst the line defining its limit, 

 except on the west, was "drawn close round the resi- 

 dential quarters, no attempt being made to deal with 

 the outlying uninhabited areas." The map furnished 

 with the report proves that the distance of dwellings 

 from untreated portions of the cantonment varied 

 from 40 to 260 yards, and that the limiting line 

 abruptly excluded numerous pits and rain-fed depres- 

 sions. It is a curious commentary upon this hap- 

 hazard method of conducting an important experiment 

 that Dr. Balfour, in his successful work at Khartoum, 

 did not similarly interpret Ross's dicta with which 

 he professed agreement.' 



More reasonable measures were, however, employed 

 by Captain Christophers when operations fell under 

 his charge. He found that the flight of the mosquito 

 could be estimated at 1320 yards, and, thereupon, he 

 reports, he extended the area maintained by Major 

 James three-quarters of a mile " in every direction."* 

 Unfortunately, however, action was not taken by him 

 on this basis until the end of August, 1903, which, 

 having regard to the duration of life of the mosquito, 

 was perilously close to the ensuing three months 

 known locallv as the "fever season." Moreover, on 

 comparing the map accompanying his own report 

 with that furnished by the committee, it w-lU be seen 



1 Second Report Wellcome Research Laboratories (Khartoum) p ar 

 z Scientific Memoirs by Officers of t^e Medical and Sanitary Departments 

 of the Government of India, No. 9, p. 8. 



NO. 2147, VOL. 85] 



that confusion exists as to the essential point of 

 measurement being made from the most external of 

 the houses of groups of dwellings protected, and not, 

 for example, " from the centre of the inhabited area " 

 — a method which seems to have been erroneously 

 adhered to by the reporting committee. Comparative 

 measurements show that, in reality, he e.xtended 

 Major James's area 220 yards in the north, 465 yards 

 on the west, 500 vards in the east, and a little more 

 than three-quarters of a mile on the south. Yet, had 

 the same solicitude been afforded in other directions 

 as to the south, so as to secure a uniform extension 

 of three-quarters of a mile "in every direction," there 

 would have been included the native cavalry lines, 

 the west infantry lines, the east native infantry lines, 

 the lowlying dhobies' ground, and part of the pits 

 of the east rifle range. 



The map showing present conditions, and the 

 accompanying description by the committee of work 

 done in the filling of pits, subsequent to abandonment 

 of the experiments by Captain Christophers, prove 

 that under this arrangement there must have re- 

 mained untreated very numerous and favourable spots 

 for larvae. The committee, in summing up its 

 evidence, has recorded its opinion that mosquito re- 

 duction, under conditions prevailing in Lahore, was 

 impossible ; but it seems to us clear that the experi- 

 ments were based upon an erroneous interpretation 

 of data said to have been adooted for guidance, and, 

 in execution, so lacking uniformity of method as to be 

 of no sanitar\' value. 



On completion of the "mosquito reduction" experi- 

 ments at Slean Mir, the Government of India left the 

 cantonment to its fate until Surgeon-General Hamil- 

 ton, C.B., urged the employment not only of "mos- 

 quito reduction " methods, but the systematic im- 

 provement of surface drainage, the abolition of canals, 

 and irrigation within a definite (but we think in- 

 sufficient) radius of dwellings, and the employment 

 of quinine prophylaxis. This highly practical advice 

 met with warm support from General Kitchener, who 

 was in charge of the division, and operations were 

 accc dingly carried on from 1904 to 1909. Never- 

 theli ss, those who would support a laissez-faire policy 

 in 1 .idia have declared that these efforts have also 

 proved inapplicable. But, it is evident from the com- 

 mittee's report that in no detail has the advice of 

 Surgeon-General Hamilton, up to date, been acted 

 upon in so complete a manner or with such a grade 

 of efficiency as would warrant final conclusions as to 

 possible benefits. 



In its conclusion, the committee holds that the 

 "general prosecution" of major schemes, such as 

 conducted in Panama, Lagos, and Sweetenham, is 

 financially impracticable ; it regards anti-larval 

 measures combined with quinine prophylaxis as offer- 

 ing "great possibilities," and advises action bv 

 Government on this svstem, but would defer this 

 pending investigations by the committee referred to 

 above, in our notice of Paltidism. For the rest, it 

 would trust to education of the people, which they 

 state "thus lies at the root of the problem." There 

 is here therefore a diminution of hope as to practical 

 measures by a process of whittling, and a suggestion 

 of the Greek Kalends as to consummation. In using 

 the term " general prosecution " of schemes, the com- 

 mittee has presumably laboured under the common 

 misapprehension that sanitarians would desire the 

 sudden expenditure of crores of rupees on anti-mala- 

 rial "major works" throughout India. What, how- 

 ever, is pleaded for is that the Government of India 

 should no longer be guided by results of experiments 

 conducted at Mean Mir by haphazard methods, and 

 thus fail, as it has for several years — apparently in 



