72 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



of advice to the tyro. Malaria is acquired by inocula- 

 tion, which is carried out by the female of the Anopheles 

 mosquito (it seems to stand on its head when sucking). 

 Pace the hare-brained lunatics who deny this and are 

 responsible for ruined constitutions. A man's health, 

 and, what is of far more importance to his em- 

 ployers, his power of doing his work, is thus in his 

 own hand. Ten years ago the use of a mosquito- 

 net was sneered at ; to-day it is recognised as perhaps 

 the most important item in the equipment of any one 

 in mosquito-haunted countries. It is not wasted 

 kindness to supply one to the servants. No one 

 should lie down to sleep without having carefully 

 examined the interior of the curtain and killed any 

 intruders. A hole, even the size of a pin-head, should 

 be tied up. Where mosquitoes are bad, mosquito- 

 boots, of soft leather or canvas, reaching high up the 

 thigh, should be worn. 



It will soon be recognised that the authorities who 

 send a malarial subject to live with men who are not 

 infected, for the infection, remember, is carried, assume 

 a great responsibility. An instance in my own experi- 

 ence is this. I was once in a station where six of us 

 never suffered from malaria. Shortly before I left a 

 malarial subject joined us, and after my departure I 

 heard that almost every one was down with it, and 

 black-water fever followed. 



My office was as bare of official literature as the bag 

 of a junior of briefs. The books of the district which 

 I had received contained the record of about a score 

 of extremely simple cases. The Mamur (police magis- 



