39 



out of doors, and then only when their victim is lying or 

 sitting still.* Lastly, we are advised to keep away mos- 

 quitoes by hanging bags of camphor or garlic round our 

 necks, or by smoking ; all certainly useless. I have seen a 

 swarm of mosquitoes in a cupboard reeking with camphor, 

 and I have never perceived the slightest effect from smok- 

 ing at least upon the mosquitoes. The efficacy of several 

 substances as culicifuges has been vaunted. Perhaps 

 kerosene oil and oil of lavender have the greatest amount 

 of evidence in their favour. 



16. Last Stages of the Campaign. If the mosquito 

 brigade was started by voluntary contributions, the super- 

 intendent will generally find as the work progresses that, 

 while with the funds at his disposal he has been able to do 

 a vast deal of good and has been able to remove the 

 majority, or, at least, many of the breeding waters, yet that 

 certain waters remain which are beyond his scope to deal 

 with, and also that many of his rough-and-ready methods 

 of drainage are not permanent. If this be the case, he 

 should now bring more and more pressure to bear on the 

 municipality to deal effectively with the matter. And the 

 matter is one which lies pre-eminently within the duty of 

 every municipality to deal with. The thorough drainage 

 of the streets and the obliteration of stagnant pools within 

 municipal limits, constitute one of the functions for the 

 performance of which all municipalities have been given 



* In twenty years' experience of the tropics, I remember to have been 

 bitten only three or four times out of doors. Gnats certainly seem to bite 

 more frequently in the open in temperate climates ; though many open-air 

 bites are probably due to midges. In India there is a jungle mosquito a kind 

 of Sttgomyia probably which occasionally attacks wayfarers in windless and 

 dark bush. In Canada mosquitoes are virulent in woods, and Americans say 

 that they are frequently bitten in verandahs and gardens. 



