tendent was a cipher; now that he possesses both he has become formidable. He should call at once on the highest official present and extort what he wants without paying for it. The official will probably be a willing victim.

I describe these machiavelian methods in detail to show how easy it is for anyone, provided only that he has the necessary energy and enthusiasm, to inaugurate this useful work in the town where he lives without waiting for or depending upon official action. And, generally speaking, there is a great deal to be said in favour of the campaign being commenced by private enterprise in this manner. But where the government or municipality do themselves decide upon carrying on the fight against mosquitoes-and the interests of public health demand that this should be done more often than it has yet been done—these initial manœuvres will not be necessary, and the superintendent can at once proceed to organise and instruct his little army.

Several junior officers of colonial medical services have written to me expressing regret that, though they are anxious to begin operations against mosquitoes, they can obtain no funds from government for the purpose. My advice to such is to raise the money among business people and others in the colony, and to begin at once without reference to government. Government is sure to come forward later as soon as it knows from experience exactly what will be required of it.

II. Organisation of the Brigade.—Every man should be given a badge. A diamond-shaped patch of red flannel sewn on the arm or breast is a good one.

Working hours and pay day should be fixed.

A list of all the workers should be kept,

Pay should be generous, as the work is of a special nature, and it is advisable to retain the men after they have been taught the work.

Natives, both of Africa and India, take kindly to the work and are often very smart at it.

The men should be invariably paid either by the superintendent himself or by a completely trustworthy agent.

The brigade should be at once divided into two gangs, a Culex gang and an Anopheles gang. Each gang should be under a special head man, who should be selected for his special intelligence and honesty, and should be given very good pay.

The superintendent should begin work by instructing each gang, especially the head men, regarding their duties. They should be shown how to find and distinguish the larvæ both of Culex and Anopheles, and also how to find, distinguish, and catch the adults. But it is not necessary to spend much time over this, nor to go deeply into the matter. The men will easily learn their work as they proceed.

Where funds do not permit of two gangs it is best to begin with the Culex gang, unless malaria is very prevalent, because Culex mosquitoes are, as a rule, the more troublesome and perhaps the more easily suppressed.

12. Organisation and Duties of the Culex Gang.The duties of this gang will carry them much into private premises. It is, therefore, very necessary that all the men should possess characters for honesty; and the head man must be a particularly respectable person. In India, where natives often object to low-caste people entering their

yards, he must be a man of good caste. Each man should be given a card specifying his name and duty, to carry with him as a credential.

In English towns, rubbish of all kinds is kept in proper dust-bins, and is removed regularly by proper agents; but in the tropics the utmost carelessness prevails in this respect. Even in the houses of Europeans, old buckets, bottles, and meat-tins are left by the native servants strewn about everywhere. Rain-water remains in these for months, and contains thousands of mosquito-larvæ, giving rise to numbers of mosquitoes, which immediately enter the windows of the houses and persecute the occupants—who, of course, attribute their presence to any marsh which may happen to exist within ten miles of the place.

The first duty of the gang will be to collect all the broken bottles, tins, broken flower-pots, old gourds, and such like, which they can find either in private premises or in the streets. The procedure as regards the private premises is as follows:-The head man informs the master or one of his servants of his errand, and offers to remove all his broken bottles and old tins free of cost. In the vast majority of cases, the offer is accepted with alacrity. The rubbish is then collected by the gang, and placed in a heap near the door; and next, in order to prevent accusations of theft, the head man must ask one of the inmates whether the heap contains any article which is required. This is an important form, because natives often attach value to all kinds of trifles. On permission being given, the whole heap is piled into a cart and removed, together with similar collections from other houses, to an assigned dumping-ground.

One or more carts, drawn by horses, mules, or oxen, can generally be borrowed from the municipality.

The dumping-grounds should be situated as near as possible, in order to save time in transit. The rubbish can be most effectually used in filling up ponds and burrowpits; otherwise it must be discharged at the municipal dumping-ground.

Dr. LOGAN TAYLOR and myself found, as the result of our work in Sierra Leone, that a gang of six men can keep one large mule-cart fully employed, and that on the average it can clear fifty houses and remove ten cartloads of broken vessels daily-one cartload for every five houses.

The head man must keep an account of all the houses cleared by his gang, and also of the number of cartloads removed. He must be extremely polite to all the inmates of the houses-especially to the older ladies. If, as sometimes, but rarely, happens, he comes to a house where the owner forbids his entry, he should simply leave that house alone (being, however, careful to record the address for future reference), and go on to the next one.

But the head man has also other duties to perform. In every house he will find several tubs or pots of water stored for use by the occupants, and in many of these he will find crowds of Culex larvæ. He should call attention to the larvæ, and endeavour to explain that they are the young of mosquitoes. If he is not believed (which, so advanced is education among the people, will generally be the caseeven among certain classes of Europeans) he should place a few larvæ in a bottle half full of water, bunged with paper, and tell the sceptics to keep them under observation for a few days. He should then ask leave to pour out the larvæ remaining in the vessel in which they were originally found, upon the ground, where they will speedily perish. If, however, the water in the vessel is required by the

inmates of the house, the larvæ can be destroyed in their presence by pouring a few drops of kerosene or eucalyptus oil on the surface, as described in paragraph 14. The same can be done with larvæ found in pools on the ground, or in the pits so frequently used by natives for washing clothes in. After the oil has killed the larvæ, it evaporates, leaving the water as fresh as before.

At the rate of fifty houses a day, a gang of five or six men will, in a few months, collect most of the broken pots and tins in a town of considerable size. If funds allow, and if greater rapidity be desired, several similar gangs, each under its own head man, must be employed.

. When the gang has cleared all the houses within the area of operations, it must begin at the first house and go over the whole ground again. But at the second visit its progress will be more rapid, because there will not now be so many vessels to collect. Moreover, many of the inhabitants will have now learnt to destroy their own larvæ.

If the brigade is supported by voluntary contributions, it is only just to appoint special men to destroy larvæ in the houses of the principal contributors and their neighbours. This can be done while the combined gang is collecting vessels throughout the town. Later on it will probably be possible to extend this system, and to appoint a special man to keep down the mosquitoes in each block of buildings. One man ought to be able to deal in this manner with about four hundred houses, visiting sixty or more daily. But this can be done only after most of the broken bottles and tins have been collected.

People should be encouraged to report the presence of numerous mosquitoes in their houses. When this is done, trained men can be sent to find the cause of the invasion.