Medical Bulletin

I propose to touch on a very big subject in the fewest possible words. The subject is malaria prevention, a subject that is intimately associated with the name of Dr. Malcolm Watson. My purpose is to suggest to you that the work accomplished by Drs. Watson, Strickland, Hacker and Lamborn in Malaya has now readied the stage when every one of us may participate and should use our local knowledge to participate in it, more than we do, for the very good reason that a scientist unfamiliar with the habits and customs of the people of this country might fail to realize the value of his discoveries. Our medical entomologists are looking for a simple key to mosquito control and I think they have found it. Assistance from all of us who have local knowledge will show how the key can be applied. The key must, of course, contain certain definite factors and I think of it in my own mind as a key-word which will enable us to open the combination lock to nature's secret dispensary of health in Malaya. Now, we know to our cost that Malaya suffers from malnutrition. She cannot feed herself but depends on other countries for her rice, fish and meat. That is an unnatural and unnecessary complaint and it is our duty to remedy it by enlarging our rice fields, cultivating fish in ponds, and establishing grazing farms. Our future prosperity depends therefore on farming and (at the risk of being considered fanciful) to illustrate my idea of the key to malaria control in Malaya, I will use the key-word " farm " composed of four letters only, F. A. R. M. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon feorm meaning food. The letters stand for fish, animals, rice, and malarial method, and, if you study the works of the scientists I have mentioned and other workers in the same field, notably Dr. Sunier and Drs. Seymour Sewell and Chaudhuri you will find that these are proved definite factors or agents in diminishing the number of malaria carriers in any given district. Correct farming means planting the right product in the right place in the right way with the natural result that the best yields are obtained. Good farming without drainage is impossible and in Malaya with its high rainfall drainage is of the first importance. The clearing of all natural water-ways must not be neglected and should precede the cutting of cultural drains. Krian provides an object lesson of the right product, rice, planted in one of the right places, the coastal plain, according to the right methods, and the result is freedom from malaria.