Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/167

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VIII]
PROPHYLAXIS
135

circumstances permit should be employed to keep mosquitoes away.

The subjects of malarial infection are dangerous to their companions; they should, therefore, be avoided or, if this is impracticable, compelled to sleep under efficient mosquito nets. Mosquitoes must e rigorously excluded from hospitals. It will prove a truly economical procedure to supply natives liberally with quinine; this should go hand in hand with other steps that may be taken to render a place salubrious.

Mosquito - protected houses.—— It has been proved experimentally and practically that complete protection from mosquito bite, and therefore from malaria, can be secured by having the dwelling-house protected by gauze fittings, with a mesh not larger than twelve strands to the inch, in the doors, windows, chimneys, and ventilators. When possible, such easures should be adopted and intelligently applied. I believe some such arrangement will, in the near future, be a feature in the domestic architecture of malarial countries.

Quinine and arsenic as prophylactics.——A great deal has been written about the prophylactic use of arsenic and quinine in malaria. Opinions are very much divided on the subject. Most deny that arsenic possesses any prophylactic power whatever. Duncan, after an exhaustive study of the recorded evidence, and after extensive and carefully conducted experiments made by himself on large bodies of troops, concludes that arsenic has no prophylactic virtue whatever; but that quinine, in a daily dose of 3 to 5 gr., lessens the fever admissions by one-half. He therefore strongly advocates the systematic use of the latter drug in all campaigns involving a sojourn in malarious districts. In this he is backed by the opinion of many medical men of experience. Corre, although he admits the prophylactic power of quinine against ordinary malarial fever, says it has no influence in preventing pernicious fevers. Other authorities, on the contrary, state that those who take quinine systematically, though liable to mild fevers to some extent, enjoy immunity from pernicious