MALARIA EXPEDITION TO THE GAMBIA 
25 
Breeding-Places Occurring Round Houses and in Compounds 
The number of mosquito breeding-places present in compounds 
was found to vary with the social position of the occupier. In small 
compounds of the poorer natives, where one or two huts were present, no breeding- 
places were found. These natives had no discarded bottles, etc., in which water 
could collect, nor were wells or tubs or any article for the storage of water present, 
sufficient water for the day being drawn from one of the public wells. These com- 
pounds were exceedingly clean and tidy, and no mosquitoes were found breeding in 
them. Excepting these, breeding-places were found and increased in extent and num- 
ber in proportion to the wealth and position of the occupier of the compound, 
reaching a maximum on the premises of the larger traders (natives and white), where 
innumerable facilities for ithe development of mosquitoes were afforded. These 
breeding-places included all those domestic articles which are capable of containing a 
small quantity of water after showers lasting over a week without being dried up, or 
are not dried up between the frequent showers in the wet season. Such articles found 
were broken bottles, either stuck on a wall or scattered over the compounds, iron pots, 
old calabashes, tin-lined packing cases, cocoanut husks, fowl troughs, and old tins of 
all sorts. There was found an extraordinary amount of such-like rubbish in some of 
the factory compounds, the more specialized breeding-places included tubs, used for 
the storage of rain-water or as wash tubs for bottles, or in which water was placed for 
the preservation of the tub. Large barrels in which fibres were soaked, garden tubs in 
which water was stored for gardening purposes, old iron boilers for the collection of 
rain-water, improperly covered rain-tanks formed other breeding-places. In some of 
the factories a small gutter six inches across by tour feet deep is let into the cemented 
floor of the yard around the ground-nut store house. This gutter is kept full of water 
to prevent the entrance of the ground-nut insect into the store. These gutters swarmed 
with mosquito larvae. In some yards a small channel runs down the centre to drain off 
rain-water, and is generally covered over with a board. It was found that some of these 
had become clogged up at intervals with sand and rubbish, so that small pools of water 
collected along their course ; these pools acted as breeding-places for mosquitoes. 
An account of an examination of one of the larger European factories 
will illustrate to what extent mosquitoes are bred by the white man 
in the tropics on his own premises. In the factory yard were six 
barrels containing water, in some the water was very foul ; in the 
garden were seventeen tubs containing water for gardening purposes, 
and besides this number of tubs there were eight small wells, all 
uncovered. In all these articles mosquito larvae were present ; in 
d 
