THE EXTERMINATION OF ANOPHELES: SOME MORE SUGGESTIONS (Classics Revisited)

Resumo

Sir, this subject is evidently exciting so much interest that I trust you will allow me space to touch on some points connected with it. While it may be possible to diminish or even exterminate Anopheles in places where their breeding pools are comparatively few, the task may be impossible or much more difficult where the breeding places are numerous. For instance, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, owing to the hilly nature of the place, the pools seem to be few enough to be manageable; but Drs. Strachan and Fielding-Ould report that in Lagos, a perfectly flat area with a high subsoil water, the pools are innumerable. Dr. Strachan thinks that the Anopheles there can be managed, but only by persistently filling up its depressions and constantly using paraffin-both troublesome and costly measures when adopted on a large scale; but Dr. Fielding-Ould is less sanguine, and, it must be confessed, with some reason. The question is, cannot we devise simpler methods of dealing with the insects in such places?