THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC OF MALARIA. 877 



microscopically the blood of the children living in the locality and 

 note the number which harbour malaria parasites. Fourthly, we 

 can seek for anopheles in the district noting the species and es- 

 pecially the number which show malaria parasites in their bodies. 



With the assistance of Captain Mackie I have been able tc 

 gauge the severity of the disease in the present instance in each oi 

 these four ways, and I shall deal with each method separately. 



It was difficult to obtain reliable statistics of the extent to which 

 malaria prevailed for accurate records had not been kept in the 

 past. Many cases of the disease however came to our notice and I 

 may mention particularly three cases of that grave and fatal 

 form of the malady known as cerebral malaria. These cases 

 all occurred within a period of three weeks. But I am in a 

 position to give some figures which carry with them some force, 

 they have been kindly supplied to me by the Superintendent 

 of the P. & 0. Company. He writes : " Each steamer after 

 " being in the Victoria or Prince's Docks for a few days returns its 

 " cases of malaria with painful regularity and not only does the 

 " sickness last the whole time the ships are in port here but the 

 " fever appears to be of such a malignant character that it continues 

 " throughout the whole voyage to London and consequently in- 

 " capacitates a large number of our crews from rejoining thei;- 

 " vessels there. This state of things has become so serious that 

 " my General Managers have telegraphed to me from London that 

 " cases of malaria are increasing to an appalling extent amongst the 

 " crews of the Bombay mail steamers, the ' Arabia ' which sailed from 

 " Bombay on the 1st August last having had 82 cases on the 

 "homeward vovage, the 'Persia' which sailed on the 15th 

 " idem landed 100 cases in London and a similar number occurred 

 " on the 'Marmora ' which left on the 29th August. This will give 

 " you some idea of the seriousness of the epidemic." 



Secondly, we have examined a considerable number of the 

 children living in the Frere Road in order to ascertain to what extent 

 enlargement of the spleen prevailed among them. No less them 80 

 per cent, of the children suffered in this way. Thirdly, a microscop- 

 ical examination of the blood of a number of children was made, 

 which revealed the fact that as many as 50 per cent, of them were 

 harbouring the malaria parasite. 



