700 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA. 



-Vfssrs. Editors : 



'^ "TTTHO shall decide when doctors dis- 

 V V agree ? " Not long since was put 

 forth the theory that the " bite " of the mos- 

 quito is a genuine antidote for malaria, and 

 one of the arguments used to sustain the 

 assertion was that Nature provides reme- 

 dies alongside all forms of disease, and 

 that, wherever malaria abounded, mosqui- 

 toes did much more abound, and were busily 

 engaged, to the best of their ability, in in- 

 jecting a tonic under the skin of poor ague- 

 stricken humanity, which would effectually 

 cure the disease if the humane work of the 

 winged surgeons was not interfered with ; 

 and now comes Professor King, in the Sep- 

 tember number of your journal, with the 

 startling claim that the mosquito is the very 

 cause of malarial diseases ! and the prob- 

 lem, Shall we encourage or kill the insect ? 

 is still unsolved. 



Having had some experience with these 

 much-denounced insects in the woods and 

 by the inland lakes in the northern part of 

 the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and on 

 and beside the lagoons of Southern Florida 

 and even in the hotel sleeping-rooms in many 

 parts of the land, I feel compelled to differ 

 with Professor King in some of his alleged 

 " facts," and I fear some of my statements 

 will at least throw a doubt over the supposed 

 " established facts " of the professor. 



The professor argues that a locality 

 abounds in mosquitoes, and that malaria is 

 found to prevail in the same locality, and 

 therefore it is quite probable that the ma- 

 larial diseases there are produced by the 

 mosquitoes. 



Suppose we assume that it is quite as 

 probable that the condition of heat, moist- 

 ure, soiL, and vegetation, merely makes the 

 locality a spot favorable to the generation 

 of both mosquitoes and malaria, without 

 any connecting relation one with the other. 

 Suppose, again, we find localities where the 

 mosquito, during a part of the year, is, by 

 the power of numbers and fierceness of at- 

 tack, almost king of the woods, and yet 

 there is no malaria to be feared or found. 



I have been in several localities on Indian 

 River and Mosquito Lagoon, on the south- 

 east coast of Florida, where I would not like 

 to have 1 been on the outside of my netting, 

 under the little shelter-cabin of our sail- 

 boat, but I have never seen more numerous 

 and, in localities, more voracious mosquitoes 

 than in our northern forests in Michigan. 

 The efforts on the part of these insects to 

 produce malarial disease, in some form, if 



this is their mission, were never more per- 

 sistent than there. I have from the best 

 authority the fact that it is no very uncom- 

 mon thing for hardy woodsmen, in the 

 spring months, to be driven from their work 

 in the forest by the mosquitoes and black 

 flies ; but the general rule is, in the milder 

 attacks, for the choppers to become so ac- 

 customed to the mosquitoes, day and night, 

 as to pay little attention to them, they " let 

 'em bite," only disturbing them when, by 

 an unusual attack, they overstep the rea- 

 sonable demands for blood. Many of these 

 men have come under my personal observa- 

 tion during a residence of from two to six 

 weeks each year for seven years at our sum- 

 mer resort on Grand Lake, three miles back 

 from Lake Huron. As I knew them to be 

 working day after day in the low cedar lands, 

 often in wet swamps, and drinking the 

 swamp water where they could find a pool 

 under some old moss-bed, and often sleep- 

 ing in rude log or board shanties in the 

 same locality, I have often asked them if 

 they did not get the ague, or " chills " and 

 fever. The answer was always, "Never." 

 I have seen manv little children, from the 

 babe up, with naked legs, feet, arms, and 

 no head-covering but the hair, absolutely 

 covered more with mosquito-bites than gar- 

 ments, all through the season, but I have 

 never known a case of malarial disease in 

 any form among them. In view of these 

 observations, I must conclude the case is 

 hardly made out that mosquitoes produce 

 malarial diseases, although in many locali- 

 ties the two are co-existent. 



The professor says it is a fact of com- 

 mon observation that mosquitoes are more 

 numerous in the late summer months. I am 

 not 6ure of other localities, but in Upper 

 Michigan, at our resort, and all through 

 Northern Michigan, the fact is exactly the 

 reverse. We usually require nettings dur- 

 ing July. About the 1st of August the 

 mosquitoes begin to disappear, and we can 

 sleep without nettings; but, during May, 

 June, and July, if they created malarial dis- 

 eases, there would be lively shakes among 

 the settlers, where malarial diseases are now 

 unknown, or of extremely rare occurrence. 



I do not know but the sea-coast mos- 

 quito is a more wicked fellow, but our North 

 Michigan mosquitoes, I believe, are engaged 

 in better work than creating malaria. In 

 fact, I am not sure but that the " bites " of 

 mosquitoes, in the cases of our northern 

 cedar-cutters, and their freedom from dis- 

 ease in great exposure furnish the "anti- 

 dote " for the malarial tendency of the 



