41 



Those who may despair of such a pleasant consumma- 

 tion ever being reached should remember that not much 

 more than a century has passed since the usual mode of 

 disposal of slops, adopted by householders in civilized 

 Britain, was to empty them out of the windows on the 

 head of passers by. The employment of sewage drains 

 was inaugurated by private enterprise, and has only gradu- 

 ally come within municipal control. Similarly, the time 

 will most assuredly arrive .when it will be just as hard to 

 find myriads of mosquitoes being bred in the streets and 

 backyards in civilized towns in the tropics, as it is now to 

 find slops being poured out of windows in English ones. 

 Private enterprise has begun the campaign in Sierra Leone ; 

 but in Lagos and Havana government has already taken it 

 up ; and in the latter city we have even the consolation 

 of noting in an official report that " the mayor has issued 

 an order prohibiting the keeping of standing water any- 

 where within the city limits, unless made mosquito 

 proof."* 



If I have spent so much space in discussing the ways 

 and means by which private enterprise can begin this novel 

 kind of warfare, it is only because I am convinced that this 

 is the best way of beginning it ; and that where private 

 enterprise leads, public enterprise must and will follow. 



* Report of Vital Statistics of Havana, May, 1901. In Sierra Leone, the 

 Governor, Sir Charles King Harman, has given us every possible assistance 

 and encouragement. 



