AVOIDANCE OF INFECTION 



271 



and the fight against Anopheles are one and the 

 same thing ; and the experiments by Sambon, Low, 

 and Grassi, show what can be done, in this war 

 against the mosquito, by way of defence. But what 

 is practicable in Italy might not be generally 

 practicable on the West African coast ; as Sir 

 William MacGregor says of Lagos : — 



" It is not likely that in a place like Lagos as good 

 results can be obtained from the use of mosquito- 

 proof netting as in Italy. One great objection to 

 it here is the serious and highly disagreeable way 

 it checks ventilation. This is a difficulty that 

 cannot be fully brought home to one in a cold 

 climate. But, in a low-lying, hot, and moist 

 locality like Lagos, it comes to be a choice of evils, 

 to sit inside the netting stewed and suffocated, or 

 to be worried and poisoned by mosquitoes outside. 

 The netting is hardly a feasible remedy as regards 

 native houses. It is not possible to protect even 

 European quarters completely by it. Few officers 

 or others are so occupied that they could spend the 

 day in a mosquito-proof room. Certain it is that 

 any man that suffers from the singular delusion that 

 mosquitoes bite only during the night, would have a 

 speedy cure by spending a few days, or even a few 

 hours, in Lagos. Operations here (September 

 1 901) are being limited to supplying one mosquito- 

 proof room to the quarters of each officer. In this 

 he will be able to spend the evening free from 

 mosquitoes if he chooses to do so. The European 

 wards of the hospital are similarly protected." 



The European in Africa, as Major Ross says, is 

 generally neglectful of his health; and the u un- 



