101
" necessary to employ a full time inspector for anti-mosquito work there
" also. He should be responsible for the area from Wari Bunder to the
" New Pock and should have a sufficient staff at his disposal with one or
" more men trained to find mosquito larvae. As the work must necessarily
" be carried on from year to year special plans of the areas to be dealt with
"should be prepared and a record of potential breeding places should be
" made as well as that of places in which larvae are discovered from time
" to time. A daily dairy or journal should be kept by the inspector who
" should be clearly made to understand that his sole responsibility is the
" preventing of mosquitoes breeding within the area under his charge.
" Failure or neglect of this duty should entail liability to dismissal. This
" is in broad outline a suggested scheme which is I believe the minimum
" which will prove successful in mitigating malaria along this portion of
" the eastern coast of Bombay. Details can only be arranged after initia-
" tion for it is impossible to state the number of men likely to be required
" at all times of the year, although during the dry weather, when guard
" must still be kept, very few will suffice. In my opinion a responsible
" inspector for both the Old and New Dock areas is a sine-qua-non. As
" soon as such men can be selected I am quite willing to do anything I can
" in the way of training them in their duties, and on the occasion of my
" visits to the Docks I will inspect and, if necessary, report upon their
" work, but it must be understood that they are responsible to the
" Medical Officer of the Port Trust, the Executive Health Officer of the
" Municpality, or some other competent authority to be subsequently
" determined, and weekly reports regarding their work should be submitted
" to such an authority."
271. The action taken by the Bombay Port Trust.—The Bombay Port
Trust appointed two European Inspectors at salaries at about Rs. 150 each
per month, engaged six of the men who had been trained under Captain
McKendrick's scheme, and also employed a certain number of untrained coolies
to work with them. One inspector was deputed to work in the New Dock
enclosure and the immediate neighbourhood and the other on the Princes and
Victoria Docks and the Port Trust Estate to the north of them. A supply of
sprayers, kerosine oil, pesterine (crude petroleum) and phenyle was also provided.
The European Inspectors were sent to receive instructions under officers of the
Health Department for a short time before undertaking their duties, and arrange-
ments were made for the general supervision of the work by certain of the
Deputy Health Officers. In 1909 the Port Trust also commenced the distribu-
tion of quinine amongst their employees. The Port Trust expended Us, 2,712
on acti-malaria work in 1909 and Rs. 7,248 in 1910.
272. The memorandum submitted to the G. I. P. Railway Company was
as follows :—
Letter No. 118, dated the 17th July 1909, from Dr. Charles A. Bentley, M.B,
D.P.H., on Special Duty, Malaria Investigation Committee, Bombay, to the
General Traffic Manager, G. I. P. Railway Company.
"In accordance with the minutes of the Committee Meeting held on
" the 80th June 1809, I have the honour to report as follows.
"In the course of the present enquiry it has been shown that the
" incidence of malarial disease among the general population is greatest in
" the Wards A. and B.
" The Victoria Terminus with its compound and sidings and the Bori
" Bunder and Wadi Bunder goods yards and sidings lie within this area of
" marked malarial intensity, and investigation has shown that—
(1) Numerous potential breeding places for mosquitoes exist
within these enclosures,
(2) Larvae of N. stephensi (the most important malaria carrying
anopheles in Bombay) have already been found in certain places in
these areas.
B 13G—20