228 THOMPSON YATES AND JOHNSTON LABORATORIES REPORT 
malaria (for actually one-half of the Anopheles caught by us contained parasites in the 
stage ready for transmission to man) it becomes at once evident that a most 
unfortunate and disastrous mistake has been made by the Europeans living here. 
In such a case as this the engineer in charge of the section has the power of selecting 
a site, and has absolute power to forbid the building of any huts within anv distance 
he chooses. When the European fully understands the certain danger to his health 
in living under such conditions, he will absolutely refuse to submit to such 
unnecessary exposure to danger. With ease, on a railway, a well segregated site 
for Europeans can always be provided. We shall see that a quarter to half-a-mile 
is ample, and some protection is ensured often by only a few hundred yards. 
We have given a railway camp as an example of the evil effects of living 
amidst native huts because here, perhaps, most markedly did we see the result in the 
fever-stricken, anaemic Europeans, subject, more than any, to blackwater fever. The 
condition of life is, however, equally typical of all out-stations, the planter, 
missionary, trader, and even Government officials live universally under similar, 
though usually less deadly, conditions. In many such out-stations the condition 
could be remedied by very slight changes, the removal of a few hovels : often a 
single grass hut has been the source of perpetual fever among the Europeans living 
in a house. 
We do not say that no native servant should sleep in a compound (though 
personally we found no inconvenience in allowing our servants to sleep away), for it 
is not in the presence of one or two adult servants that the danger lies, but in the 
numerous families (with children) crowded into the dark and dirty huts so universally 
seen at the European's door. Once the fact is recognized that it is from the crowded 
cooly lines and native quarters that the European derives his fever, we feel sure that 
the whole hygienic aspect of these fever camps will change. 
Segregation on Military and other Expeditions and for Travellers and 
Sportsmen 
The facts already put forward explain also why military expeditions in Africa 
are attended with such a large amount of sickness and so terrible a mortality. As 
an example of the mode of contracting malaria on military expeditions we may 
instance Prahsu, a well-known halting place on the way to Kumasi from the Coast. 
It is probable that every man passing up or down to the Coast during the Ashanti 
campaigns slept at least a night at this station. From plans of the condition there, 
European quarters and native huts in close proximity, it is at once evident that here 
at least was one of the sources of the sickness and mortality among European troops, 
and not in the ' climate.' 
In native villages the native porters are able to procure food, and here gener- 
ally a clearing is found ready for a camp. So that it is the almost invariable practice 
