188 THE YELI.OW FEVER CAMPAIGNS 



One brigade consisted of 1,500 men to wage relentless 

 war upon all the breeding places of the stegorayia. 

 ^VU stagnant water was upset, all useless receptacles 

 removed to the dust tip, and liouses scaled to clear 

 the gutters. A rapidly moving column was organised 

 to deal instantly witli any house in which infected 

 mosquitos might be ; they were attacked at once 

 with sulphur and pyrethrum. 



Thus it came about that between the years 1903- 

 1906, a period when everything, according to the old 

 doctrines, should ha\'e engendered yellow fever — viz. 

 open putrefying drains, mud dredging, moisture, a close 

 foetid atmosphere — in fact, a period of the old-time 

 concatenation of circumstances when miasm ought to 

 be distilled and deal death all around, passed in perfect 

 safety ; more emigrants than ever arrived, but no yellow 

 fever. A total of 948 deaths in 1904 showed that 

 ignorance had been at last conquered, and that never 

 again could there be room for doubt. And for once 

 the strong arm of the law felt it had reason on its 

 side ; it did not hesitate to punish those Avho trans 

 gressed and were found harbouring the enemy — the 

 stegomyia larvae. 



As evidence of the earnestness of the people we 

 read that in 1909 153,070 breeding places of larvas 

 were destroyed, 850,575 odd water receptacles 

 examined, as well as 44,343 reservoirs and 004,283 

 water-containers overhauled ; as many as 814,650 sinks 

 and 718,154 water-closets oiled ; 2,545 cartloads of 

 tins and odd receptacles were removed from yards. 

 For fumigation 1,242 kilos of pyrethrum and 28,603 



