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from the head governments — from the dozens of commissioners, adminis- 

 trators, governors, and other well-paid " proconsuls," from the India Office, 

 the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office — could set the whole machinery in 

 motion (by telegram) within a few months. In a few more months, perhaps 

 in a year, or in two years, the death-dealing pests would begin to fall under 

 control, would begin to diminish, even to disappear entirely in favourable 

 spots ; and with them, slowly, the ubiquitous malady would fly from the 

 face of civilisation— not in this town or that town, nor in this or that colony, 

 but almost everywhere throughout the British Empire— nay, further, in 

 America, China, Europe, and the isles of east and west. Not disappear 

 entirely, of course (an impossible ideal at the time), but be banished from 

 the most crowded centres of civilisation. 



Men of science, and indeed all humanitarians, should know what really 

 happened. There was no doubt about the discovery. In 1898 my work 

 was confirmed by the great Robert Koch and by Dr. Daniels, and was 

 pirated by distinguished Italian writers. Almost every detail of the life of 

 the parasites of malaria in mosquitoes had become known ; and I had 

 infected healthy birds in Calcutta by the bites of mosquitoes in 191 8, and 

 the Italians had subsequently infected healthy men in Rome. My work 

 had been published by myself officially in India, and by Dr. Manson in 

 England ; and I had reported my new method for reducing malaria to the 

 Government of India. The habits of mosquitoes were well enough known 

 to justify an immediate attack upon them ; and in 1899 there was no earthly 

 reason why such an attack should not have been commenced everywhere. 

 On arrival in England I lectured on my new method and then set out at 

 once for West Africa to try to put it into practice. Hurrying back, I 

 described the whole situation in four articles in the British Medical Journal 

 (1899, vol. ii.), published a Report, gave more lectures, and wrote more 

 articles. In 1901, finding that nothing was being done, I went again to 

 West Africa (at my own expense) to give an object lesson on my method 

 with ^2,000 supplied to us by a philanthropist of Glasgow for the purpose ; 

 and in 1902 revisited Sierra Leone to see how the work was progressing. 

 Between these visits I wrote two little books on the subject, gave innumer- 

 able lectures, refuted innumerable people who " exposed " us in the daily 

 press, and argued with professors who assured us that it was as absurd to 

 try to reduce mosquitoes as it would be to try to reduce the atmosphere. I 

 visited high officials, wrote to Secretaries of State, enlisted the aid of 

 several great ladies, and even made laborious mathematical studies of the 

 subject — see my Prevention of Malaria (Murray). 



The only result was that at the end of the two years, by which time I 

 had hoped for so much, the enlightened municipalities of Calcutta and 

 Freetown had each employed one native, at a salary of about £1 a month, 

 to remove all their mosquitoes ; but as the result was disappointing they 

 soon stopped this extravagant expenditure ; and, instead of it, Freetown 

 gave ^500 a year as salary to a local medical man for general sanitary work 

 without the removal of the mosquitoes — which were the main cause of its 

 sickness ! But in 1901 the Americans discovered that yellow fever also 

 is carried by mosquitoes, and, unlike the plantigrade British, immediately 

 attacked the insects in Havana, with the result that that disease was entirely 

 banished there and malaria was largely reduced. In the same year Sir 

 William MacGregor, advised by his capable Senior Medical Officer, Dr. Henry 

 Strachan, commenced similar work at Lagos, where I visited him ; and 

 Dr. Malcolm Watson began his admirable campaign (still being continued) 

 in the Federated Malay States. In 1902 I was invited by the Suez Canal 

 Company to rid Ismailia of malaria ; I went there with Sir William Mac- 

 Gregor ; and in a year the disease was banished by the labours of no more 

 than four workmen (as Dr. Pressat has stated) ! But after this the world 



