HOUSING WITH REFERENCE TO MALARIA CONTROL 
309 
means for securing malarial control, re¬ 
markably little progress has been made in 
the past 20 years in the application of this 
measure on a group or regional basis. This 
may be due, in part, to the discovery in 
1922 that Paris green was a useful anophe- 
line larvicide. The years which have fol¬ 
lowed its first use have shown, however, 
that it possesses the limitations inherent in 
all larvicides. 
Rural Housing in the Southeastern 
United States 
Rural homes of the tenant class in the 
Southeastern States are usually very poor. 
The average dwelling of this class usually 
has many cracks, knot holes and other open¬ 
ings in the floors, walls and ceilings. These 
openings must be closed, in addition to ap¬ 
plying screens to doors and windows, before 
the house offers a reasonable protection 
against mosquitoes. 
Fullerton and Bishop (1933) presented 
a detailed program and plans for improved 
rural housing in the malarious areas of 
Tennessee. A bulletin of instructions, 
structural plans, and specifications was 
published and made available to builders 
through county health departments. It 
was shown that, by proper planning and 
construction, houses could be built at very 
little increased cost which would offer pro¬ 
tection against mosquitoes. Moreover, the 
planned houses were arranged more con¬ 
veniently and offered greater protection 
against the cold of winter and the heat of 
summer. Attention was directed to the 
possibilities of effecting economies, con¬ 
veniences and sanitary improvements by 
planned grouping of houses. It was em¬ 
phasized that by making a study of avail¬ 
able sites the house or group of houses 
might be located beyond flight range of A. 
quadrimaculatus breeding areas. 
This possibility of lessening malaria 
transmission on large plantations or tracts 
of land by systematically locating houses 
beyond flight range of mosquito breeding 
areas is deserving of more attention. It 
would in no way interfere with the normal 
use of land as pasturage, and agriculture 
would continue as usual, but it would re¬ 
quire restriction of the use of land, within 
flight range of breeding places, to daytime 
occupancy. 
The Tennessee Bulletin on rural housing 
set out plans for improved construction of 
houses from materials now in common use. 
In this connection there is a construction 
method deserving of mention, which is as 
yet little used in the south. It is the type 
of construction where walls of the house 
are made of “pise du terre,” or rammed 
earth. It has been fully explored and tried 
in the United States and elsewhere and has 
proved economical, serviceable and durable. 
The usual construction is to make the walls 
14 to 16 inches in thickness of rammed 
earth, with floors, ceiling, roofs and door 
and window frames of the usual wood con¬ 
struction. A foundation of concrete or 
masonry is required to extend a few inches 
above the ground line. The best material 
for rammed earth construction is a sub-soil 
clay or loam containing 30 to 50 per cent 
sand. Pure clay is not suitable because it 
tends to crack and flake upon drying. The 
walls are usually constructed in short sec¬ 
tional courses about 3 feet in height. Three 
or 4 forms are all that are necessary as 
their use may be alternated. The forms 
must be constructed of heavy material and 
tied with steel rods, as in forms for con¬ 
crete. An alternate to the monolithic con¬ 
struction is the pre-cast rammed earth 
blocks which, upon being cured, are used 
in building the walls as brick, tile or con¬ 
crete blocks would be used. 
It is important that the earth contain 
just the proper amount of moisture. Ram¬ 
ming must be thorough, with tools designed 
for the purpose. Further details may be 
found in the literature listed in the refer¬ 
ences under Betts and Miller (1937), El¬ 
lington (1938), Patty (1936), Patty and 
Minimum (1933) and Williams-Ellis-Clough 
(1920). This type of structure tends to 
facilitate complete mosquito-proofing since 
cracks and crevices, so common to the walls 
of frame structures, are minimized. 
The Resettlement Administration built 7 
houses of rammed earth construction at 
