522 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



quitoes to malaria he says : ' This is a piece of knowledge of the utmost 

 importance to mankind, for we know that malarial disease in tropical 

 countries . . . causes more deaths and more disposition to death by 

 inducing cachectic states, predisposing to other affections than all the 

 other parasites affecting mankind together.' The italics are our own. 

 This is a most startling statement to the ordinary layman, yet it comes 

 from one who knows whereof he speaks. 



Celli, the celebrated Italian authority on malaria, tells us that the 

 mean mortality statistics give about 15,000 deaths yearly from malaria 

 in Italy. He further says that, "calculating from the number of deaths 

 the number of patients, we arrive approximately at about two million 

 cases a year." "The loss of labor and of production, and the ex- 

 penses entailed in dealing with this disease consequently amount to 

 several millions of francs." About five million acres of land go 

 uncultivated or very improperly cultivated, which represents an enor- 

 mous loss. One railway company spends on account of malaria one 

 million fifty thousand francs ($200,000) a year. He sums up by 

 saying, 'one can positively assert that malaria annually costs Italy 

 incalculable treasure.' 



Our own statistics on malaria are meager and not so clear cut as one 

 could wish. Yet the figures of the twelfth and last census which is 

 just now appearing are enlightening, as the following table taken from 

 that census will show. I have selected the six diseases that cause the 

 most deaths in the states considered. There are no other diseases that 

 approach near enough to these in their death rate to demand serious 

 consideration or comparison. 



Number of Deaths for Year ending May 31, 1900. 



Louisiana 



Mississippi. . . . 



Alabama 



Georgia 



South Carolina 



Malaria. 



1,030 



983 



1,005 



1,011 



749 



It must be borne in mind that these figures concern only those 

 deaths that were reported. Scores of deaths occurred in these states 

 that were never reported. But it no doubt is safe to assume that the 

 deaths from one disease were reported as fully as those from another, 

 hence we can with fairness use these figures for making comparisons. 



In the first place then, considering malaria by itself in relation to 

 the total number of deaths in each of the five states mentioned, we find 

 the following generalizations to be true. The total number of deaths 

 in Louisiana for the year ending May 31, 1900, was 20,955, of which 

 1,030 or very nearly one twentieth were from malaria fevers. In 



