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finding that they are hardly ever really abundant, except in native communities. Whenever in any place we wished to collect large numbers, our invariable practice was to proceed to the native quarter, and there we could collect Anopheles generally without difficulty. It was otherwise elsewhere, and in remote marshes occasional specimens (most frequently of a "wild" species) only were caught in our tents.

So far as appears

at present, the majority of Anopheles in Africa haunt native villages. It is, perhaps, almost permissible to say that about 5 per cent. of all the Auopheles of tropical Africa are infected with malaria and infected solely because they have derived the infection from latent native malaria.

In nearly every hut, then, of the millions scattered over the jungle lands of Africa, and of those forming the densely crowded towns of West Africa, we have children with parasites in their blood, and Anopheles to disseminate these.

The consequent infection of Europeans.

The condition of extreme unhealthiness found par excellence, in West Africa is not determined by the "climate." The reason is largely to be found in the conditions under which Europeans at present live in Africa. Even on general grounds it would be well to avoid native huts and hovels, with all their dirt and insanitary surroundings, conditions which may be likened to those in the worst slums of our large towns. When, however, we realise that these huts are veritable hotbeds of malaria, it is evident that the very first sanitary law for Europeans in Africa is to avoid their neighbourhood. It is, however, a striking but most deplorable feature that in Africa hardly ever do we find a European bungalow or dwelling place built with this end in view. European houses are often situated among the huts of the natives in towns, as in Freetown, Sierra Leone, or they have a cluster of hovels or huts close at hand. In one instance we saw a new settlement being built on the very fringe of a native village. It was not a question of necessity, as land free from villages or huts was available all around, nor was there any reason of policy, the Europeans being employed on the railway, and having no relation with the villagers. The choice of such a site sufficient in itself to ensure the settlement being a very deadly one, as it indeed was later the case, could only be deplored. To sum up, then. we can say that with certain notable exceptious, to be mentioned later, the European on the West Coast of Africa is living in the midst of native huts and is consequently daily exposed to the bites of infected Anopheles. The actual conditions are described in greater detail in the following section dealing with prophylaxis.

PROPHYLAXIS.

At the outset we shall divide the prophylaxis of malaria under two heads:

1. The prevention of malaria in native communities.

2. The prevention of malaria in Europeans.

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The two problems are essentially different, and no confusion should ever exist in our minds as to what any given anti-malarial measures are intended to achieve, whether increased health of resident Europeans or diminution of native malaria.

1. The prevention of malaria in native communities.

Prophylactic measures applicable to the average native of tropical Africa are, for many years to come, beyond discussion. The vast bulk of African natives are completely beyond any sanitary control whatever. In some large towns a measure of control does exist, e.g., Freetown, Lagos, Accra, Cape Coast Castle and a few others. In these only has one the least hope of achieving any result.

Methods of malarial prevention applicable to large native communities seem con- fined to some form of Anopheles destruction, either by superficial drainage or by the continuous labours of a mosquito brigade. The administration of quinine, advocated by Koch, though so effective under the conditions at Stephansort, could not, we feel certain, be applied with any measure of success even in Freetown or Lagos. Speak- ing briefly we, ourselves, do not believe that with the means at the disposal of the sanitary bodies in West Africa any appreciable diminution in native malaria can at