ABSTRACT
From the point of view of the Malariologist a railway is a Euclidean straight line. It might therefore be thought that any attempt to control malaria along its route would be foredoomed to futility, unless powers of entry and work on surrounding property were granted. For this reason very little has in the past been attempted towards the control of malaria on railways. The railhead port of Talaimanaar on the Ceylon Government Railway was reported on by James (1912), but no anti-mosquito measures other than screening seem to have been undertaken. The Khulna branch of the Eastern Bengal Railway was the scene of a quinine campaign (Eastern Bengal Railway press, 1925), which, as might have been expected, proved futile, though some valuable statistics and experience were gained from it. Though the St. Louis South-Western Rail Road in the United States of America have conducted anti-malaria operations at a cost of $800, (Rs. 2,400, approx.), per mile of track with excellent results, it was not until the writer was appointed Malariologist to the Bengal-Nagpur Railway that any Indian railway made any serious attempt to deal with the malaria affecting it. It is hoped that the account of various anti-malaria operations given in the present paper will convince the administrations of the various railways of India that the control of malaria as it affects their operations is not only practicable, but economic.
