French colonial policy shifted to mosquito eradication rather than prophylactic quinine

Evidence

Roume clearly preferred mosquito eradication to the prophylactic use of quinine for the control of malaria. This confirms William Cohen’s findings that the French did not use prophylactic quinine much in this period, although it challenges his claim “that the French means of combating malaria had not changed dramatically since the beginning of the nineteenth century” (Cohen, “Malaria and French Imperialism,” p. 29 ). Mosquito eradication was a new policy, which all colonial powers were adopting at this time. Curtin, Death by Migration, pp. 131-140. Nevertheless, I concur with Cohen’s larger point, that colonialism helped to reduce malaria in French West Africa, rather than the reduction of malarial incidence leading to the French conquest of the region. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 973

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to imperial medicine literature: Philip Curtin’s Death by Migration and William Cohen’s malaria work.
• QUESTION: Why did Roume reject prophylactic quinine in favor of costly mosquito eradication? Political or medical rationale worth chasing.

Related

• French colonialism reduced malaria in West Africa rather than malaria decline enabling French conquest (similarity 0.93)
• French West Africa adopted mosquito eradication as an innovation against malaria (similarity 0.92)
• French colonial officials fought tropical disease mainly to protect trade (similarity 0.80)
• Yellow fever and malaria outbreaks threatened West African trade. (similarity 0.80)
• Bacteriological confidence and scarce resources undermined French colonial sanitation (similarity 0.79)