32 



face against such doings. With a pipe water-supply, and 

 specially constructed cisterns for washing clothes, most 

 wells and washing-pits may be filled up. 



It will sometimes happen that the breeding-places can- 

 not easily be found owing to a quantity of rank vegetation. 

 It is very wrong to allow such in the middle of towns, and 

 the presence of ill-kempt areas full of weeds is a proof of 

 incompetent municipal management. Efforts should be 

 made to clear up such places. See YOUNG'S Paper in the 

 Appendix. 



A large proportion of the sickness prevalent in tropical 

 towns is directly due to mismanagement on the part of the 

 local authorities. These nearly always show a tendency to 

 pay the least possible attention to the cleanliness and 

 tidiness of their towns. Much of the money available for 

 sanitation is often spent, not on getting the work done, but 

 in paying far more than the market value for supervising 

 officers who draw their salaries and write reports. It is 

 high time that a radical change be made in these matters. 

 Leading citizens who cannot get improvements made by 

 quieter means will generally obtain attention if they write to 

 the principal home papers on the subject. It is monstrous 

 that large towns should be allowed to remain in the disgust- 

 ing condition in which, as a matter of fact, they often are. 



14. Destruction of Larvae. As argued in paragraph 3 

 it is better to obliterate the breeding places of mosquitoes 

 than to spend much time over merely destroying the larvae. 

 We may continue to destroy the larvae with oil for months, 

 leaving the pools themselves alone, and yet find that after 

 every operation fresh eggs are laid by the adult insects 

 living in the houses, and that fresh larvae develop. It is 



