The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-21
BY HENRY DE VARlGNY.
TRANSLATED from LIE Temps.)


organizing commission to stamp out
swamp fevers in our colonies. The
plan is infinitely praiseworthy and OPP
perfume, and we shall succeed if we are
wise enough to learn from the admir-
able work that has been carried on in
Italy, in Africa, in India, in Havana,
and in Egypt, and if we conform to
certain fundamental principles which
it is perhaps worth while to recall.
We know-thanks to the mastery re-
searches of Laveran, Ronald Ross. P.
Koch and host of others-that swamp
fevers are propagated, in the vast ma
jority of cases, by mosquitoes whose
bite inoculates the human system with
special parasite. If it is possible to
have mosquitoes without swamp fevers,
it is impossible to have swamp fevers
without mosquitoes Wherever there
is malaria we must therefore wage war
on mosquitoes, without stopping to dis
tinguish the harmless mosquitoes from
the harmful ones. This is fundamen-
tai.
But by what method? By avoiding
them? No; though this is what a
traveller should do in a malarious coun-
try, and the method gives excellent
results, as the studies carried on in the
Roman Campagna have shown. For
it is now well known that to escape
country, it is sufficient merely to put
up mosquito bars at night. The mos
quitoes don't fly about in the day time,
they sleep. 1t is during the night that
they bestir themselves and bite-that
is, the females, for the males are harm
less The females make all the
trouble, and this has been clearly prov
ed at Ostia, at Freetown, and else
where But to dodge mosquitoes by
staying in a house provided with
screens and MEETINGS and to deny ones
self the privilege of an evenings walk
this is only makeshift. We shall
not advocate any such program for
Algeria.
In Algeria we shall prefer-aS else
where, at Freetown, at Havana or at
Ismailia-to destroy the mosquito. But
an objection comes up at once. 1t is
not yet easy to exterminate the wolves
and deer of sparsely settled country
of any great extent; what chance of
success shall we have in an attempt
to exterminate low insect which hides
all day and only comes out at night?
Could we go at the task with any hope
of succeeding? Yes. assuredly. But
some word of explanation is necessary.
In the first place, let US remember
that there is only one practical way
to destroy the mosquito; it is that
which succeeds in preventing it's repro
duction by the suppression of all pools
of stagnant water, big and little. The
larva of the mosquito matches out in
the water; no water, no mosquitoes.
Hence, to fight swamp fevers We must
suppress the pools of stagnant water.
Under these conditions, it is plain that
if we would get rid of swamp fevers in
any district, we must first get rid Of
its ponds, marshes, etc. In other
words, we must dry up the whole coun-
try; and, besides, we must abolish GER
tain branches of agriculture-rice-g grow
ing, for instance. Evidently, the task
is beyond human strength. But-and
here is the essential point-there is no
need of doing so much. Neither in
Algeria nor elsewhere must we neceS-
sarily try to suppress the mosquitoes
altogether. We may content our
selves with a smaller undertaking,
which will. nevertheless, yield excellent
results. And we shall accomplish our
purpose if we take account of two
facts which seem to me especially i'm
portant.
The first is that mosquitoes are rela-
lively Sedentary, home-seeking crea-
lures. They make no long journeys;
they move only short distances. they
live where chance has placed them,
without seeking to run about in the
world. From this we infer that, to
achieve the sanitation of a village or
a post, it suffices to destroy the ponds
and stagnant pools in it's immediate
neighborhood. We need not fear that
the mosquitoes viii pour in from the
outlying districts to replace those which
We have killed or whose birth we have
prevented. Nor need we fear that the
|
the wind; this kind of invasion is rare.
| For when the wind blows the mosqui-
toes have only one idea, which is to
take refuge near the earth and to hide
| in the cracks of the rocks or in the
underbrush. The question comes down
to this: Over how great an area must
we destroy the ponds, and what must
be the radius of the territory upon
which we must operate.
To answer this question it will be
sufficient to consider the observations
made in Bengal, at Accra, at Freetown,
at Lagos, and at Blantyre. These show
very clearly that a settlement situated
at least 400 metres from ponds or stag
nant pools invariably suffers from mos
quitoes. AT a distance of 500 or 60t
metres mosquitoes are appreciably rare
Finally. since at q distance of 700 or
800 metres the mosquitoes are wholly
got rid of, or put in only an infrequent
appearance, this indicates the extent
of territory in which they are able
to multiply. NM. Stephen and Chris
tophers have clearly shown US this ir
a series of little diagrams representing
a number of villages, the nearest
swamps, the distance between, and the