14 GROWTH OF SANITATION IN THE TROPICS 



great diminution took place in the cases of typhoid 

 and dysentery. But further, A\'ith the comfort of a 

 constant water supply either in tlie liouse or close at 

 hand by the roadside, the necessity for storing water 

 in cisterns was abolished. In consequence, the storage 

 of rain-water is not now the absolute necessity it was 

 before the introduction of pipe water. It is true that 

 the inliabitants of cities still collect it for washing 

 purposes, but this will disappear in time. Now in the 

 old days it was the storage of rain-water in the Mooden 

 vats or in the innumerable barrels M'hich furnished the 

 ideal breeding grounds of the house mosquitos. There- 

 fore to tlie new watci' supplies niii.si be ascribed the 

 remwi'kable diminution of yellow fever tJiroughoiit the 

 West Indies — that is, when we compare to-day with 

 the condition of affairs fifty years ago. l>ut this is a 

 matter to which I will again refer in detail. The 

 significance of the relationship of the diminution of 

 yellow fe\er to the introduction of pipe-borne water 

 is due entirely to the fact that there has been of 

 necessity a diminution of the common breeding places 

 of the house mosquito — the Stegoinyia ccdopus — the 

 sole carrier of yellow fe\'er. 



Again, with the inculcation of the principles of 

 cleanliness, and with the appointment of sanitary 

 inspectors to see that yards and gardens are kept clean, 

 there has been a very general cleaning up of the larger 

 towns, so that now there are fewer odd tins and bottles 

 for water to collect in. This, again, has still further 

 reduced the breeding places of domestic mosquitos. 



Therefore it is not to be wondered at that in many 



