

Eobekton. — Malaria and Mosquitos. 235 



but with windows and doors and other openings protected by 

 mosquito-proof netting. This house was erected at Ostia, not 

 far from Rome, at the mouth of the River Tiber, in a district 

 so malarious that any one spending a night there at certain 

 seasons was expected to take malaria. The place was chosen 

 as one of two suggested by Roman observers as having the 

 worst reputations for malaria. The house was inhabited by 

 two medical men and their attendants. By day they went 

 about exploring the country, studying the mosquito life 

 of the district, or amusing themselves. At sundown, how- 

 ever, they went within-doors until after sunrise. The pea- 

 sants of the neighbourhood considered them mad to come 

 to such a place. Subsequently, when the strangers remained 

 healthy while the peasants were attacked as usual by the 

 fever, the latter came for medical treatment. The experi- 

 ment lasted for three months (from June to September), and 

 the experimenters remained well during that time. An un- 

 expected addition to the experiment was made during their 

 stay at Ostia. The land on which the house was built was 

 part of a Royal hunting estate, and King Humbert, of Italy, 

 took a considerable interest in the experiment. While it was 

 in progress he was assassinated, and it came to the ears of 

 the authorities in Rome that in Ostia were certain suspicious 

 characters in communication with anarchists. To arrest 

 these, sixteen police officers were sent down from Rome. 

 They spent only part of one night in Ostia, but every one of 

 them about a fortnight later developed malaria. 



Similar experiments elsewhere proved equally successful. 

 Dr. Grassi, of Rome, chose another notoriously malarious dis- 

 trict, and protected there some of the houses of the railway 

 workmen. Those whose work required their going out at 

 night wore veils and gloves. There were 104 people in these 

 houses. All of them remained free from malaria, although 

 their neighbours, not protected, contracted fever as in other 

 years. 



It was thus shown that the individual could under certain 

 circumstances be protected from the mosquito, and so from 

 the malaria ; but it was an impossible undertaking to protect 

 all the houses and huts of a country, or keep all the inhabit- 

 ants within-doors at night. It was desirable to find other 

 means of prevention applicable over larger areas. 



The dissemination of malaria theoretically might be 

 stopped either by preventing the infection of the mosquito 

 by man or by preventing the infection of man by the 

 mosquito. The prevention of infection of mosquitos is to 

 be attained by either curing all cases of malaria by the 

 use of quinine or by keeping patients under such con- 

 ditions that the mosquito could not reach them. In pre- 



