Malaria in Ceylon 
measure ; the men have a great aversion to the taste of the raw drug 
in liquid form, and it is feared that more often than not the medicine 
is thrown away. 
A few observations were also made in Badulla (2200 ft.) a town- 
of 6400 inhabitants, the capital of the Province of Uva, and the centre 
of a large tea-bearing district. 
There is a heavy rainfall of 75 ins. per annum and the average 
temperature is 73° F. The town lies in a hollow, shut in on all sides by 
precipitous hills rising to 4000 ft. 
As in the case of Kurunegala there is a block of terraced paddy fields 
about 100 acres in extent constantly irrigated by running water. 
Epidemics have occurred in the town in recent years, and apparently 
a considerable number of fresh infections occur in the wards of the 
Government hospital which abuts the block of paddy fields already 
mentioned, even though the whole building has been lately efficiently 
screened with wire gauze. 
In the few fever cases I was able to investigate the quartan parasite 
alone was found. 
In the paddy fields adjoining the hospital large numbers of ano- 
pheline larvae were secured. M. barbirostris and sinensis, Myzomyia 
rossii and culicifacies, and M. punctulata were found to be the most 
abundant species. 
Dr Van Rooyen, the resident medical officer, has in the last two 
years, been in the habit of treating the paddy fields in the vicinity of 
the hospital once every week with a strong solution of cresoline ; there 
is no doubt that this substance is an efficient larvicide and is harmless 
to the sprouting rice-plants, but its effects can only be of the most 
transient character as it is almost immediately swept away by the water 
overflowing from the terraces above on to those below. 
It is possible that with modifications suited to local conditions the 
recommendations I put forward in Kurunegala apply to Badulla also. 
It is essential that the offending block of paddy fields in the centre of 
the town should be abolished and dry cultivation substituted. 
