12 INTRODUCTION 



adoption of measures carried out so successfully in 

 other countries. Egypt, with the exception of the 

 Suez Canal Zone, is still backward, and the Khedive's 

 Government continues to regard mosquito reduction 

 as a fraudulent fetish. That country is under some 

 spell. Its tombs, its mummies, its Pyramids, its 

 " honourable dead," appear to be more important to 

 it than the health of the living. The Sphinx con- 

 tinues to gaze over Cairo with its death-rate of 40 

 per 1,000. 



But these mosquito campaigns have always been 

 instituted on account of either malaria or yellow 

 fever. There is, consequently, an impression, even 

 among medical men, that unless malaria or yellow 

 fever actually exists in a community there is no neces- 

 sity to try to reduce mosquitos. Persons w r ho have 

 been for a long time resident in warm climates may 

 become immune to mosquito bites, and do not feel 

 them, and if they themselves are seldom sick from 

 malaria, or never have yellow- jack, they are inclined 

 to laugh at the suggestion of an anti-mosquito cam- 

 paign. They say : " There are no Anophelines here, 

 nor is there any yellow fever. Why bother about Culex 

 or Stegomyia, then ? These mosquitos do no harm." 



The Culecine or domestic mosquito does no harm. 

 Dengue fever is carried by the domestic and ubiquit- 

 ous Culex fatigans. Yellow fever is transmitted by 

 Stegomyia calopus, the common speckled gnat. And 

 if these fevers do not exist in the town there is always 

 the possibility of their introduction in these days of 

 rapid travel and communication. But is it certain 



