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CHAPTER V.
THE OBSTACLES TO MALARIA PREVENTION IN BOMBAY.
383. In an ad interim report published in 1910 it was pointed out that
conditions in Bombay were exceedingly favourable for the suppression of
malaria by measures directed against the species of mosquito responsible for the
spread of the disease. The Island of Bombay is of small size and possessed of
no rivers or natural water courses ; the population is very large and is concen-
trated chiefly upon the southern half of the island. This portion of the
island, which has an area of about eleven square miles, contains the whole
of the City proper with a population of about 700,000 persons; the sea forms
its boundary to the south, east and west; and to the north malaria is so little
in amount as to be almost negligible. Although the total rainfall is heavy, it
nearly all falls in four months and for eight months of the year there is
almost no rain. On general grounds therefore there do not appear to be any
great obstacles in the way of malaria prevention.
A detailed consideration of the type of breeding places favoured by
Neocellia stephensi, the principal carrier of malaria in the City, supports the
view not only that anopheline reduction is the most suitable measure to
use but that as far as natural difficulties are concerned, the work of prevention
should be very easy. There appear to be only about 2,000 breeding places in
the City, which harbour larvae of malaria-carrying anopheles at present, and
the vast majority are artificial collections of water, such as wells, fountains, and
small masonry tanks, which are not in themselves difficult places to deal with.
But as we have already seen in the Chapter on the Legal Aspect of Mosquito
Prevention there are other obstacles to be overcome.
3S4. The physical obstacles to prevention of malaria in Bombay are
so few and insignificant that they would not deter municipalities of one-tenth
the size in many other parts of the world, from undertaking the immediate
control of malaria (vide Durban with a population of 60,000 people, which
has spent Us. 12,00,000 on abolishing certain swamps near the town; and
which supports a special mosquito brigade of 2 Europeans and 50 Indians), in
spite of the few who might object; but there is a danger that in Bombay
ignorance, prejudice and apathy may make the task no easy one.
385. It is a common thing when discussing the problems of sanitation
in India to hear people speak of the dense ignorance of the masses, as one of
the greatest obstacles to reform. But although this is no doubt true in many
cases, a consideration of the facts does not support the view that the dense
ignorance of the masses is any great obstacle to the suppression of malaria in
Bombay. The ignorance of the masses did not prevent the adoption of a pure
water-supply once the educated classes had decided that it was necessary;
neither has it prevented the adoption of drainage schemes, street lighting and
a host of other improvements that have been introduced into the City from time
to time, whenever the educated classes have been convinced of their value;
moreover the continued presence of malaria is not due to the habits of the
ignorant masses of the population, but to causes for the most part within the
control of the educated and wealthy property-owning classes of the community.
386. It is a most significant fact that during the investigation no
difficulty was experienced in any part of the City in dealing with uneducated
and poor people. Many of these people, especially in places where malaria
was prevalent, were keenly interested in the matter ; they readily came for-
ward and allowed their fingers to be pricked for the taking of the blood films;
and they often brought their children out to be examined. In other cases,
when it was pointed out that open wells and other unprotected collections of
water were largely responsible for the ill-health of their children or themselves, or
for the plague of mosquitoes from which they suffered, many of the householders
volunteered the statement that they would gladly have them closed or covered,