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" of water would not care to pay for a license for wells, fountains and tanks
" which they did not use.
" (i) "When once the permanent breeding places of Neocellia stephensi
" and other malaria-carrying mosquitoes have been controlled, the danger
" of temporary breeding places will be greatly diminished ; but it will be
" necessary to adopt measures for the control and reduction of the latter
" also, for there is evidence to shew that certain localities, notably the
" Frere Road area, have suffered seriously in the past, mainly because large
" numbers of temporary breeding places have been created there.
"(j) Owners of large yards and compounds, open spaces and building
" sites should therefore be required to level and drain their property and
"keep it free from jungle and undergrowth, so as to reduce as far as
" possible the danger from collections of fresh rain water in the monsoon.
" If such work were done section by section systematically, commencing
" with Ward A., it would soon effect a great improvement.
" (k) Other temporary breeding places for malaria-carrying mosquitoes
" are neither very common nor important. They will be dealt with under
" the head of Special Measures.
" (l) Special measures for large Cisterns.—The question of dealing
" with cisterns in general has been already discussed and it has been
" suggested that the erection of open cisterns should be prohibited in the
" future. Small open cisterns or those which are improperly covered can
" easily be dealt with, but there still remains the question of large open
" cisterns, such as exist in mills and other places, fortunately with rare
"exceptions these do not appear to be very dangerous, and it would
" probably be sufficient to require such as already exist to be registered,
" licensed and periodically inspected. If found to be breeding mosquitoes
" they could be dealt with just as any other permanent breeding places, by
" cancelling the license, etc.
" (m) Special measures for Wells.—No fact has been more clearly
" demonstrated in the course of the present investigation than the direct
" relationship that exists in the south of the island between the presence of
" open wells and the occurrence of endemic malaria. Where there are
" many wells there is much malaria; where there are few wells there is
" little malaria, unless other special breeding places exist in large number ;
" and where there are no wells malaria is usually reduced to a minimum.
*' The protection of open wells therefore becomes the most important general
" measure of anti-malaria sanitation. There are many thousands of open
" wells in Bombay and nearly three thousand are to be found in the portion
" of the City south of Grant Road. Of these a very large number are the
" source of the species of mosquito responsible for the spread of malaria.
" Many of these wells have been out of use for years and in many other
" cases the water is only required for washing purposes or the watering of
" plants. From a few wells water is taken for drinking purposes and from
" certain others for religious ceremonials, but at least one-half of the total
" number are used for no purpose whatsoever. The owners of these wells
" are few in number, and the users of the water do not represent a very
" large proportion of the population; but the sufferers from malaria, for
" which these wells are reponsible, number many thousands.
" (n) Broadly speaking, wells may be divided into two classes:—
" (A) Wells within houses or so situated that they are overlooked
" by doors or windows from which tenants in the upper floors can draw
" water by means of a rope without descending.
" (B) Wells situated in compounds and gardens at a distance from
" dwelling houses.
" Observation appears to shew that generally speaking wells of type A
"are more dangerous than those of type B. In particular, open wells
"in the basement of houses are specially suitable for the breeding of
" Neocellia stephensi.