30 



Used Wells, Washing Pits, and Drinking Pools. When 

 these contain larvae, which is rare, recourse must be had to 

 clearing vegetation and to periodical oiling. Wells can 

 always be protected by a mosquito-proof cover with a small 

 wire gauze grating for the bucket as done at Bathurst, 

 Gambia, and other places. 



Streams. Sedges and grass on the banks of sluggish 

 streams sometimes shelter larvae, and should be lifted. 

 Torrents, which in the rains cannot harbour larvae, may 

 become prolific sources of mosquitoes when they begin to 

 dry up. Cementing the pools in the rocks, " training " the 

 banks, and a generous use of the broom at the end of 

 the rainy season are the things required. 



Marshes. These must be gradually filled or drained ; 

 but this work ought to be undertaken by government. 

 Gaol prisoners can be most usefully employed on the task, 

 as at Lagos. It is probable that in most cases as much 

 good will be done by clearing the rank vegetation, and by 

 deepening the marsh and converting it into a lake, as by 

 filling it up or draining it. A small Anopheles gang can 

 generally do effective work by draining and dressing the 

 boggy ground at the proximate margin of the swamp, or 

 by oiling the marsh in the dry season, as is often done in 

 America. 



All this looks very formidable on paper. It is not so 

 in reality. A very few men working day after day will do 

 wonders in the course of a few months. The great thing 

 is to make a beginning : not to form counsels of perfection, 

 not to measure means with ends, but simply to set to work 

 with whatever force there is available, however small it may 

 be. A single private citizen can eradicate malaria from a 

 whole town. In an enterprise of this nature, the means 

 grow as the work proceeds. 



