74 



MOSQUITO NETTING. 



It is not likely that in a place like Lagos as good results can be 

 obtained from the use of mosquito-proof netting as in Italy. One 

 great objection to it here is the serious and highly disagreeable way 

 it checks ventilation. This is a difficulty that cannot be fully brought 

 home to one in a cold climate. But in a low-lying, hot, and moist 

 locality like Lagos it comes to be a choice of evils to sit inside the 

 netting stewed and suffocated, or to be worried and poisoned by mos- 

 quitoes outside. The netting is hardly a feasible remedy as regards 

 native houses. It is not possible to protect even European quarters 

 completely by it. Few officers or others are so occupied that they 

 could spend the day in a mosquito-proof room. Certain it is that 

 any man that suffers from the singular delusion that mosquitoes bite 

 only during the night would have a speedy cure by spending a few 

 days, or even a few hours, in Lagos. Operations here are being 

 limited to supplying one mosquito-proof room to the quarters of each 

 officer. In this he will be able to spend the evening free from mos- 

 quitoes if he chooses to do so. The European wards of the hospital 

 are similarly protected. Hitherto we have used only muslin, as the 

 wire netting ordered in England last November has only just now 

 reached this. Much importance seems to be attached to the question 

 of the material to be used in making the metallic netting, which alone 

 can last in this climate. Muslin becomes full of mildew and rots in a 

 few weeks when exposed. 



We have had here a very useful experience as to the materials 

 required for the metallic gauze. In May, 1894, some 250 yards of 

 galvanised wire netting was obtained from England and was used in 

 building rose houses at Government House in August of the same 

 year. Those houses have been examined by the Assistant Director 

 of Public Works who says they will be good for four years more. This 

 shows a vitality in this climate of some half score years for the 

 galvanised wire netting. The experiment seems conclusive for Lagos, 

 and in future this kind of gauze will be used instead of the expensive 

 article made of compound of copper. 



THE ATTACK ON MOSQUITOES. 



The measures taken for diminishing the numbers of mosquitoes 

 are various. The most expensive is the slow, laborious, and costly 

 one of filling in the swamps of Lagos. That is being done chiefly by 



