PREVENTION OF MALARIA 175 
It is a method, moreover, which is peculiarly adaptable to 
the very conditions under which other methods are most futile and 
malaria most deadly, namely, the small settlements scattered about 
the African colonies. 
Up to the present, segregation has not received the attention which its 
simplicity and practicability deserve. It is significant, however, that the two latest 
expeditions to Africa, namely, the Malaria Commission and the Liverpool School 
Expedition, are unanimous in upholding it as pre-eminently above all other schemes 
of prophylaxis as applied to Africa. No doubt the absence of attention is partly due 
to an insufficient appreciation of the condition of universal native infection, and 
partly to a want of knowledge of the conditions under which Europeans live in 
Africa. 
It has been objected that segregation is impossible to the trader and 
commercial section of the community, and that the natives would by its application 
be apt to take offence. Both these objections are based upon a mistaken idea as to 
what it is proposed should be done to diminish malaria in Europeans by segregation. 
As it is essential that the conditions of life of Europeans in Africa should be 
first thoroughly understood, a brief description of these conditions as most commonly 
seen is desirable. 
1 Up-country Stations. Whether Government official quarters, missionary 
or traders' quarters : the Europeans' house may or may not be a well-built 
dwelling adapted to the climatic conditions. In either case there is always : 
(a) A palm or grass hut or more pretentious building which is nominally 
the kitchen, but which is also used by a variable number of native 
servants and often by their families as a sleeping place. This 
structure is always within a few yards of the house. 
(b) On some pretext, or for no assignable reason, there are always a few 
huts or a small village close at hand. This condition is universal, 
and the practice is responsible for the malaria from which Europeans 
in Africa suffer. 
(c) Unlimited ground quite free from huts and easily attainable. 
Here it is evident that there is nothing to prevent the European living in 
comfort and health. 
The kitchen is essential ; not so its use by all the native servants as a sleeping 
place. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any servant is necessary at night in most 
instances. Certainly many servants in the towns go to their homes and return again 
in the early morning. Were even one servant considered a necessity at night there 
need be no more, and there certainly need not be any children allowed. In a day 
or two the servants would build new quarters at any distance if so ordered. 
