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or stop the spread of introduced Cholera or Typhoid. The destruction of 
breeding places for Stegomyia fasciata will prevent the dissemination of Yellow 
Fever and that of rats limit the probability of the spread of Plague. 
The most important of the indigenous diseases are Malaria and 
Dysentery. Further details as regards the causation of these diseases are 
given elsewhere. The main peculiarity of Malaria in this country is that it 
is a disease of hilly country and of certain alluvial districts near the sea, and 
that during clearing and draining such places are bound to be unhealthy. 
This period should be shortened as much as possible as when cleared or 
drained they cease to be malarious. 
The most serious diseases probably imported but now firmly established 
are Beri-Beri and Tuberculosis. 
Beri-Beri appears to be of rapidly diminishing importance, and though 
the true causation is obscure we do know that every improvement in the 
welfare of the people will further reduce its importance. 
Tuberculosis on the other hand is steadily and rapidly increasing and 
unless energetic measures are taken promises to be the important fatal 
disease of the country. 
Attention to sanitation in its widest sense and expenditure on it would 
in my opinion be even pecuniarily remunerative. 
Notes on Certain Insect Pests affecting Plants. 
The insect pests of the vegetable kingdom in the Malay States are 
numerous and destructive. In the grounds of the Institute a considerable 
amount of food has to be grown for various animals and in addition fruit 
trees and certain plants of economic value are cultivated. 
It was hoped that those interested in such subjects might have been 
able to make a special study of the diseases of such plants as it could 
be more safely done in an isolated tract of land than in an agricultural 
district. ~ c , 
Certain preliminary observations have been made by the start of the 
Institute and they show that the distribution of disease of this kind in the 
Federated Malay States requires careful and local study. . 
Su^ar Cane, Sacchamm Officinarum .—The “borers affecting this plant 
in the large Sugar estates in Province ellesley were the subject of a 
special study by Mr. Ridley, the Straits Settlement Government Botanist. 
He showed that the worst pest was a lepidopterous larva Cliilo saccharalis , 
but that the canes were also attacked by larvae of two species of Coleoptera 
Sitophilus sculpturatus and Xylotrupes gideon. In Selangor in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Kwala Lumpur none of these borers are found but instead borers ot 
two lepidoptora one, a Zeuzerid, which is very common and destmcthe an 
a smaller rarer one which does comparatively little damage. This mot , 
according to Mr. Robinson, is closely allied to PhvagmatcBcia castanaa.^ 
The Zeuzerid larva commits worse ravages than I have seen m any 
other part of the world in Sugar cane. If the caterpillar penetrates near the 
top of the cane the growing point is completely destroyed, if nearer the 
middle the growth is much retarded and the young segments formed are 
short and thin but if the cane survives later segments may attain nearly the 
full growth. , , rr 
If the borer perforates the canes near the ground secondary effects 
frequently result, either termites obtain access and eat out the whole of t t 
