2
ernment to obtain the opinion of an experienced Settlement Officer as to the possibility of put-
ting the land along roads and railways to some useful purpose. In Lahore, as in most places,
we have, I am afraid, been very careless about closing up or draining borrow-pits we have
excavated. A line of pools between the fort and the wireless station in which anopheline larvæ
have been found the whole year round, is, I am informed, the remains of the water-course to
the Industrial Exhibition we had in Lahore a few years ago, observations were conducted in
the Shalimar garden tanks with the object of ascertaining the utility or otherwise of certain,
fish in destroying the anopheline larvæ, but no definite conclusion was arrived at.
3. The advisability of administering quinine to school children during the malaria season
for the twofold purpose of preventing malaria and instructing the children in the use of quinine
has been under consideration. In Ambála the only difficulty I experienced was, that the
children were on vacation about half the malarial season. If quinine is to be administered
regularly during the malaria season, the time of vacation must be altered. Outside educating
the children in the use of quinine I should like also to have exhibited in a specimen tube in
each school the malaria carrying mosquitoes of the Punjab. My staff could mount the mos-
quitoes, so the cost would be small,
4. A lot of malaria is contracted in dâk bungalows and rest-houses, Little or no
attempt is made to see after the sanitation of these houses. The chaukidar or man in charge
takes no action to prevent anopheline breeding places in the compound. Water in some in-
stances lies for days (between the going of visitor and the coming of another) undisturbed in
the garahs in the bath rooms. In some instances even the poisonous three garah-filter is found
in the verandah, and if the building is a Government one, a line of red fire buckets half filled
with water and mosquito larvæ—the variety depending usually on the season of the year.
Coupled with all this about 50 per cent, of the servants' children only a few yards away have
usually got enlarged spleens.
5. The prevention of malaria in the canal colonies has been under consideration. It
is practically impossible to compare the fever death-rate in the canal colonies with the fever
death-rate in pre-colonial times for in large areas now populated, there was practically no popu-
lation at all. The conditions in canal colonies are unfavourable to malaria, in so far as the
people are well fed and have consequently a high resisting power. A well-nourished man may
contract malaria, but he very rarely dies of it. The conditions in the canal colonies, if irriga-
tion is not carefully carried out, are favourable to malaria in so far as they afford innumer-
able potential breeding places for anopheline mosquitoes. The disease at any rate requires
to be carefully watched and all reasonable precautions should be taken for its prevention, with
the object of watching the disease more carefully I suggest that in addition to the death
reports now submitted, Civil Surgeons be asked to send a report of the deaths from fever in,
the villages in the canal colonies to the Chief Malaria Medical Officer so that the fever
mortality could be specially examined and in the event of an unusual death-rate from fever
in any village an officer of the Malaria Bureau who has had special training in malarial
matters could be deputed to advise and assist the local staff. I would also suggest education
of the colonists in malarial matters by leaflets and other means. The very great importance
of taking quinine themselves and of giving quinine free of charge to all their workmen and
the families of their workmen during the months of August, September and October should be
impressed on all colonial land owners. The dose given by the Punjab Government to petty
officials, menials and convicts, 15 grs. a week, is simple and effective. One pound of quinine
which can be purchased for about Us. 12 is capable of protecting from malaria 40 workmen—
for a whole year—annas five per head per annum. It is not a very great task for an employer
of labour to give 15 grs. of quinine to his servants once a week, for three months.
6. The following Appendices accompany this report :—
Appendix No. 1.—Gives the deaths from fever in the districts of the Punjab, month
by month, during 1914.
Appendix No. 2.—Shows on a map the death-rate from fever per mille in each district.
Appendix No. 3—Gives a map of the Splenic Index in July 1914 of children in schools
in each district in the Punjab.
Appendix No. 4. —Gives a map of the Splenic Index of the children of the same schools
in November 1914.
Chart No. 1.—Shows the Total Mortality and "Fever" Mortality in the Punjab from
1867—1914.
Chart No. 2.—Shows the Annual Fever Mortality (October and November deaths) in
the Punjab from 1867—1914.
Chart No. 3.—Shows the Monthly Fever Mortality in the Punjab during 1914.
7. Bawa Harnam Singh, Senior Assistant, Malaria Bureau, and Pandit Daulat Ham,
have been of the greatest assistance to me. They are energetic and capable, The other mem-
bers of the staff also worked to my entire satisfaction,