EXAMPLES OF MOSQUITO EXTERMINATIVE MEASURES. 99 



At the time when the work began, June 26, 1902, there were 13 people 

 living in the station ; among them 9 had been there a year or more 

 and were malarious; 4 had arrived during the winter and had never 

 had any fever. In the neighborhood of the station there were two 

 families, one of Arabs and one of French. All members of these two 

 families were malarious and refused to be protected, and therefore 

 constituted a constant source of infection for the Anopheles. It was 

 the same way with the travelers who came to the station to wait for 

 trains leaving in the evening or at night. Most of them were Arabs 

 coming from near-by places notoriously unhealthy. The conditions 

 of the problem were then severe. It was necessary to protect from 

 the bite of infected Anopheles 4 persons not previously exposed 

 and 9 others already malarious, the latter from reinfection. The 

 measures undertaken were to protect this group of people from adult 

 Anopheles and to destroy the Anopheles larvae. This was done in the 

 usual way. The openings to the buildings were screened — doors, win- 

 dows, and chimney. All breeding places were searched for and found 

 and were treated with kerosene. On leaving the station at night veils 

 and gloves were used ; but in spite of this watchfulness it was not cer- 

 tain that all of the house people invariably observed this precaution. 

 The results were excellent. The numbers of the mosquitoes were 

 greatly reduced by the work against the early stages ; the building was 

 almost entirely protected, so much so that but 9 Anopheles suc- 

 ceeded in gaining entrance. At the end of the season not one of the 

 4 new people had shown the slightest symptoms of malaria, a con- 

 dition which it is safe to say had not occurred before in that locality, 

 and the others, although having some fever, showed no indication of 

 reinfection. 



This was only an initial experiment to prove what could be done, 

 and the results were placed before the governor-general of Algeria and 

 the members of congress as well as the departmental and communal 

 authorities. The expenses incurred amounted to $58.83. The gov- 

 ernmental efforts since that time seem to have been very consider- 

 able. In 1904 malaria was pandemic in Algeria, but by increased 

 knowledge and increased efforts the report for 1908 shows that in that 

 year the situation was very much better and not to be compared with 

 that of 1904. The effort takes the form of conducting demonstra- 

 tions in order to give lessons to the people and to widen each year 

 the territory covered, and to organize antimalarial campaigns in 

 different malarial localities by the physicians, the engineers, etc., 

 stationed in those localities. Propaganda* work of all kinds is going 

 on, including placards in the railway carriages and elsewhere and 

 teaching antimalarial measures in all the schools. The last report 

 published — that giving an account of the operations for 1908 indi- 

 cates an awakening of the country that can not fail to he productive 

 of great good. 



