June 1907,] 



401 



Miscellaneous, 



round, in order to keep the immediate vicinity dry. Pools, if they occurred after 

 rain, should be filled in or levelled. (French drains are made by digging first a 

 graded trench, filling in the whole length of it with coarse rubble, then over this 

 fill in finer gravel, then sand or earth, and cover the whole with earth, gravel, 

 or grass. Some sinking will, of course, occur, which must be dealt with, but the 

 result is an enormous and cheap improvement.) 



Brick drains round lines are, of course, charming, but they must be carefully 

 graded and capable of dealing with all flood-water, kept clean by frequent sweeping 

 and disinfection, and, where they run deep, deep holes to carry off surface water should 

 be made. Tidal drains, whether of earth or brick, unless properly controlled by water 

 gates are in my opinion inadvisable. If thoroughly under control and regularly 

 opened and the drains swept with the ebbing of the tide they may be made use of. If 

 the watergates are opened at high tide and closed until low water then opened and 

 the drains flushed out at a high velocity, with much sweeping, twice a week, then 

 good results may be expected. 



Too much stress cannot be laid upon the system of facilitating all sanitari- 

 ness amongst coolies, at present they are blamed as a class — I believe quite wrong- 

 fully — for being dirty in their habits and altogether bestial, they have no oppor- 

 tunity of being otherwise unless the European places every convenience within their 

 reach. Let a sanitary mendor be appointed to every 100 coolies, erect a latrine for 

 every seventy-five individuals, punish defaulters, inform your coolies of the arrange- 

 ments, post notices for those who can read, and I shall deem it a personal favour 

 if you will let me know the result at the end of six months. System must be the 

 password, and every drainage and sanitary plan should be capable of extension 

 to meet larger demands. 



PRINCIPAL DISEASES OP THE COOLIE. 



For obvious reasons it would be improper of me to write a full description 

 of the methods of treatment and diagnosis of disease in this paper, and it would 

 be quite impossible to do so within the limits of an ordinary essay, but in the 

 interests of both parties I may perhaps sketch briefly the principal symptoms which 

 lead one to suspect serious disease, and suggest a sound amateur treatment to be 

 adopted in such cases. 



Malarial Fever.— The principal disease to which the coolie is liable is 

 Malarial Fever, but if the attacks of this disease remain discrete — by which I mean 

 so long as the attacks are separated by a day or days — one may safely deal with 

 him on the estate by the administration of quinine in 5 gr. doses thrice daily ; if, 

 however, the attacks overlap, and the disease becomes continous, then an hospital 

 is the proper place for the case. When it is found that the fever yields to quinine 

 the drug should be continued in 5 gr. doses daily for two (2) months, the neglect 

 of this most important " regime of prophylaxis " is the cause of the relapse cases 

 which cause so much invaliding and disturbance of estate work quite unnecessarily. 



The necessity of sleeping in mosquito curtains must be " rubbed into '* 

 coolies ; the Chinese have adopted them and there is absolutely no reason why the 

 Tamil should not be educated up to their use. At the meeting of the Malaya 

 Branch of the British Medical Association held at Ipoh on August 28th and 29th, 

 1906, my friend Dr. Malcolm Watson of Klang, pointed out the advisability of 

 mosquito-proofing all lines, and he laid before that meeting most convincing 

 statistics to show that the saving of life and labour from the ravages of malaria 

 by this means, amply repaid planters for their original outlay on wire gauze. I 

 am strongly in favour of this measure where it is feasible, but curtains must be 

 supplied where serious obstacles to its adoption exist. 



