80 SUMMARY OF THE ANTBLVLARIAL CAMPAIGNS 



commenced to organise amongst themselves, laboratories 

 ha\e been established at various centres and entomo- 

 logists have been appointed, and already much useful 

 work lias been accomplished ; and we have every reason 

 to believe that the " white man's grave " reputation 

 of the Coast will soon be a thing of the past. The 

 Governor of the Gold Coast, in November 1909, 

 wrote : " I think there can be little doubt that ' the 

 expectation of life ' amongst Europeans in West Africa 

 is gradually improving." The Principal JMedical Officer 

 wrote : " The expectation of life for Europeans is 

 much more favourable now than it was ten years ago." 

 Both agreed that this improvement was to be at- 

 tributed to " the gradually imjDroving conditions under 

 which Europeans, especially government officers, live 

 and work ; to their growing appreciation of the 

 principles of tropical hygiene ; and to the increasing 

 knowledge of the medical staff. Better houses are 

 being built year by year, and the segregation of 

 European dwelling-houses is now an adopted principle 

 by both the official and mining communities." 



Equally promising is the Report for Sierra Leone 

 for 1908, furnished by the Principal Medical Officer. 

 He describes the antimalarial measures which are now 

 a regular part of the ordinary sanitary administration 

 and include the systematic remo\"al of all odd water 

 receptacles, removal of bush, grass and weeds, pre- 

 vention of formation of puddles. It is added tliat 

 the death rate for Freetown for the year was cal- 

 culated to be 22 per 1,000 ; 150 deaths were caused 

 by malarial fevers as compared with 202 deaths from 



