226 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



one of the latest and most important of these discoveries has 

 been that of the causal relation of the mosquito to malaria. 

 We have no primary malaria in New Zealand — i.e., none ori- 

 ginating in New Zealand ; but the subject is, especially at the 

 present time, when so much rivalry exists among colonising 

 nations, of the gravest concern to all engaged in the work of 

 colonisation, or in that of carrying the benefits of civilisation 

 or religion to those parts of the inhabited globe which have 

 not yet come under their influence. It is of special concern 

 to such civilised lands as India, Italy, and some parts of 

 America, where malaria has to be reckoned with as a serious 

 hindrance to the material prosperity of the country. 



The importance of the discovery that mosquitos play a part 

 in the dissemination of malaria can be realised only by those 

 who have some knowledge of what a powerful influence that 

 disease has had in retarding the settlement and development 

 of new lands, or in the impoverishment of so rich and ancient 

 a nation as Italy. To-day tropical Africa is still a compara- 

 tively unknown land, although European settlements have 

 existed along the coasts for centuries. Exploration of the 

 interior has been difficult ; the opening of it to commerce and 

 civilisation has proved a gigantic task, as yet hardly more 

 than begun, mainly because of the malarial fevers which have 

 been met with, and which have so often either turned back 

 the explorer or merchant or claimed him as their victim. 



A similar story is to be traced in the history of the colonisa- 

 tion of twenty centuries and more ago. When the Greeks 

 sought to found the colonies in northern Africa or southern 

 Europe the fevers they met with were as formidable opponents 

 as the inhabitants of the lands they wished to occupy. It is 

 recorded of the foundation of Some itself that its site was 

 chosen because it was a healthy spot, although in the midst of 

 a district where fevers were prevalent. When the Romans 

 later carried their civilisation by force of arms westward and 

 northward the same fevers were to be feared and reckoned with. 



More than once in comparatively recent history has an 

 army returned vanquished, not by the foe it set forth to meet, 

 but by malarial fevers. One memorable instance in the 

 history of our own nation is the ill-fated Walcheren expedi- 

 tion ; another the attack on the Spanish colonies of Central 

 America, which ended in the disaster at Cartagena. 



It is estimated that in India there die annually from fever 

 (mostly malarial) five million people. Of our army there 

 (including Europeans and natives) one-third suffer every year 

 from malaria. The loss to individuals and to the nation from 

 the incapacity thus occasioned cannot, of course, be accurately 

 gauged, but can to some extent be understood from the 

 immense death-rate just mentioned. 





