CO885-(21-23) — Page 140

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

CO. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Although all the seaports which I have examined are provided with a piped water- supply, there is not one in which the present arrangements are such as to obviate the necessity of water-storage in houses; and, as would be expected, the receptacles used for such storage are the chief breeding places of stegomyia fasciata. I cannot give a complete account of the various municipal and household expedients and apparatus for the purpose of obtaining and storing the water from the pipe supply, and the following examples give only a very insufficient idea of some of them. In George- town. Madras, nearly every house has a tap, but the pressure is so low that water can be obtained from the tap during only a few hours in the middle of the night (that is when water is not being drawn in better supplied parts of the city). The inhabitants are, therefore, obliged to store water for use when the tap supply does In addition, the amount of water that can be obtained, even during the night, is not sufficient, and has to be supplemented by water drawn from the wells which are present in the compound of nearly every house. These wells are also breeding places of stegomyia mosquitoes. In Bombay the supply is intermittent, and the pressure is insuflicient to provide a tap supply in the upper storeys of the houses. There are usually three or four storage cisterns in each of the larger houses, one being on the roof, the others often in dark inaccessible corners under staircases. On the ground floor there is often a stone reservoir and nearly always a well. Smaller receptacles for storing water are numerous. Cisterns erected on the pavements for the purpose of supplying the road-watering carts are also a prominent feature in this city. In Rangoon there is a separate cistern for each floor of the houses, and other receptacles for storing water, such as large tubs, barrels, stone reservoirs, earthenware Pegu jars, &c., are very numerous.

In Calcutta there is a double supply of water (filtered and unfiltered), and I was informed that every house has a separate series of cisterns for each kind of water. In Karachi earthenware chatties are the chief storage receptacles.

8. The remedy for overcoming the necessity for storing water in houses is the provision of a constant high-pressure water-supply, and this measure is, in my view, the first step that should be taken in any attempt to reduce stegomyia fasciata in our seaports. There can be no doubt, I think, that this measure alone would be sufficient to produce a great reduction in the prevalence of stegomyia fasciata, for, almost automatically, it results in the disuse of water containers of every kind. Such receptacles become no longer necessary nor even useful, and the most backward house- holder can appreciate that water fresh from a tap is better than water which has been standing in dirty tubs or chatties. At the same time the measure automatically opens the houses to inspecting officers (for leakage and waste must be prevented, broken taps repaired, &c.), and renders practicable methods of education and per- suasion that are inapplicable at present-inapplicable because so long as water- collecting and water-storing vessels are a necessary part of the household equipment, it is unreasonable for the State to try to abolish them. But the introduction of a constant high-pressure supply at once justifies a campaign against such articles; instead of a campaign against the water in which mosquitoes breed, we have one that is more effective, because it is directed against the water-containing vessels. And to secure the abolition of those vessels, it would not, in my opinion, be necessary to resort to any other than persuasive methods. Thus our enquiries in Madras and Karachi clearly indicated that the householders in these seaports would have no objection (religious or other) to the closure of their wells and the removal of their water-storage receptacles if they were provided with a sufficient and constantly available water-supply, and I gathered from the Health Officer of Bombay that perhaps the position is not very different in that city.

9. When the main position has been carried by the plan above outlined, the precise method of completing the task of reducing stegomyia mosquitoes is merely à question of tactics, and these would probably differ in different places. It might even be unnecessary, at present, to proceed further than would be required to bring about the abolition of water-containers in houses; for we know that that step alone would place the city in such a condition of preparedness that complete success against stegomyia could doubtless be accomplished quickly and with comparative ease if the necessity for such were to arise. And in any case, so far as measures in the interior of houses are concerned, it would not be advisable, I think, to take any further action. I am aware that "antiformicas," flower pots, vases, &c., in the interior of rooms are great breeding places of stegomyia, but having in view that, if the necessity were to arise, such breeding places could be very easily and quickly deal with, and that the chief purpose of the plau of campaign should be to avoid

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creating difficulties with the people, I do not advocate any attempt to deal with them at present.

10. But we can, of course, take action with regard to breeding places outside houses. These will chiefly be discarded tins, bottles, and other artificial receptacles thrown away in compounds and yards, as well as all kinds of rain-water collecting vessels. No extraordinary means nor intelligence are required to make operations against such breeding places effective, and as regards at least one very important kind of breeding place, namely, the roof gutters of houses, it is a very favourable condition that scarcely one of the houses in our seaports is provided with those quite unnecessary appliances. In cities like Panama, New Orleans, and Honolulu, the roof gutters of houses have been found to be amongst the most difficult (as well as being among the most prolific) breeding places to deal with, and experience has shown that they should never be allowed on houses in the tropics.

11. Summing up my conclusions very shortly, I would say first, that stegomyia reduction should form an important item in the sanitary policy of our seaports, both on the ground that, if successful, it would ensure their permanent safety against yellow fever, and because the measures necessary to bring it about are those which have a great effect in bringing the sanitary condition of a city up to a high standard; and second, that stegomyia reduction in our seaports is practicable if it can be pursued according to the plan outlined above, but impracticable, and, in my opinion, not to be attempted, on any other plan. It is known that in India by far the most serious difficulties in a campaign against a "house-haunting" mosquito like stegomyia fasciata are social and political ones, and it is believed that the plan stated here would avoid them. The next greatest difficulties are financial, and on this subject it may be said that none of the money spent on a constant water-supply would be wasted-the measure has the merit of being necessary and proper on quite other grounds than those here advocated, and it is almost certain that, on those other grounds alone, it will ultimately become imperative to adopt it in the important cities now under consideration. The measure is, of course, very costly, but I have already mentioned that for international reasons it is very advisable to raise the standard of sanitation in our large seaports, which are now in such close connection with the outer world, and on this view the matter should, perhaps, be regarded as a necessary part of the ordinary business of the Empire, a sinking fund sufficient to meet the probable expenditure over a series of years being provided in the Imperial annual estimates.

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12. If it is decided that a trial campaign on the plan recommended in this note should be made, I think that the harbour of Madras and the contiguous area of Georgetown would be most suitable for a first experiment. The climate in this part of India is all the year round tropical in character, and other conditions are such as to make the city very badly infested with stegomyia. Moreover, I understand that a scheme has been sanctioned and is already under construction for providing Georgetown with a constant water-supply, so that the primary difficulty of the campaign has apparently been overcome in that area.

S. P. JAMES,

Major, I.M.S.

Delhi, 20th January, 1913.

15290

No. 69. HONG KONG.

REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1912 ON THE PREVENTION OF MOSQUITO- BORNE DISEASES. (Received 5 May, 1913.)

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[Published as No. 1 in Appendix I. to [Cd. 7261], March, 1914.]

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