156 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



parasitic disease enjoyed by the modern citizen from the pest- 

 ridden existence of his predecessors. 



So promising is the outlook in this domain that the final 

 triumph of mankind over parasitic diseases would seem to be 

 trammelled and delayed by two things only. Firstly, there is 

 the cloud of ignorance which still conceals the real etiology of 

 parasitic disease from the great mass of the public, especially 

 in the tropics. The once universal belief in the supernatural 

 origin of epidemic diseases, their ascription to demons, gods and 

 evil spirits, lingers on tenaciously among uneducated people, 

 who, holding this belief, naturally regard with hostile or con- 

 temptuous eyes the best designed efforts of sanitary officials. It 

 is this ignorance which lies at the root of the appalling death- 

 roll from parasitic diseases in India and until it is removed by 

 appropriate instruction in the schools and elsewhere no real and 

 permanent progress in their prophylaxis in that country would 

 appear feasible. The second obstacle to ultimate victory lies in 

 the dearth of funds for original research. In spite of some 

 recent donations in England, America and Germany, no one 

 who takes the trouble to realise clearly in his own mind the 

 awful carnage inflicted on humanity by parasitic diseases and 

 the brilliant results already achieved by modern scientific 

 research but must be lost in amazement that, whilst avalanches 

 of money are readily forthcoming for objects that gratify the 

 vanity or subserve the complacence of the wealthy, so little 

 finds its way to furnish the very moderate assistance required 

 by scientific workers. The agonies inflicted by many of these 

 diseases recall the hells of theological imagination ; the heca- 

 tombs of lives sacrificed to them in the past, aye even to-day, 

 utterly dwarf the puny efforts at wholesale slaughter of an 

 Attila, a Timour or a Napoleon. Yet the rivers of monetary aid 

 that well so bounteously nowadays from the founts of benevo- 

 lence and kindness for the most part lose themselves in sterile 

 and unprofitable deserts, only the merest trickle reaching the 

 fertile soil of scientific research. All the more honour then to 

 the hardy pioneers of science who, with scanty encouragement 

 and in the face of great difficulties, have already achieved for 

 humanity such great and permanent alleviation of its torments. 



But in the domain of therapeutics the advance made of recent 

 years, whilst not inconsiderable, differs, whether in respect to 

 method or the results achieved, from that in the prophylaxis of 



