HEALTH.
The rainy season of 1891 to 1892 found the settlers in Mashonaland well housed and with an abundance of provisions; in consequence, a wonderful improvement was manifested in the health of the community, proving that the insufficiency of food and shelter, necessarily associated with the initial occupation of a wild country so many hundreds of miles from a base of supply, was mainly responsible for the sickness of the rainy season of 1890–1891.
The Senior Medical Officer of the British South Africa Company reported early in 1892 that not a single case of fever had arisen among the inhabitants of Salisbury during the worst part of the wet season; in every case the patient had contracted his fever elsewhere, and there had been no deaths at all from climatic causes in Salisbury or its district. He adds: ‘Good food, good clothing, shelter from inclement weather and the sun, an abundant supply of medicines and invalid necessaries and a milder season have wrought an enormous improvement in the general health of the people, [[406]]and Mashonaland of 1892 is not recognisable as Mashonaland of 1891.’
The general health has been equally good in the rainy season of 1892–3, and the experience of the last two years has shown that perfect health may be enjoyed by anyone who will avoid undue exposure and will observe a few simple precautions.