198 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



five-roomed wooden house about three hours drive from Ostia, in one of the 

 most malarious portions of the Campagna, The house was tightly built and was 

 thoroughly screened. The experimenters, together with a Signor Terzi and two 

 Italian servants, lived in this house through the period when malaria is most 

 prevalent. They took no quinine and no health precautions beyond the fact 

 that at sundown each day they entered the house and remained there until 

 daylight the next morning. Dr. Eees, of the London School, visited them and 

 occupied the house with them for a portion of the time, and all three conducted 

 laboratory work in one of the rooms, which was fully equipped for such a pur- 

 pose, and led a busy and contented life. They explored the neighboring swamps 

 and woodlands and visited the neighboring villages. They received and en- 

 tertained many visitors who were interested in the experiment. They always 

 turned indoors before sunset and then stood at the windows and timed the first 

 appearance of Anopheles, which would come at a certain hour each evening and 

 try to enter the screened windows and doors. As Dr. Eees expressed it, " It 

 must have been very tantalizing for them to be unable to get at us." When the 

 rains set in, everyone said that that was the critical time of the experiment. 

 The people in the surrounding country became ill generally with malaria, the 

 dulling caused by the rain having brought about an explosion of the fever. 

 The experimenters, however, went out into the rain and got soaked to the skin, 

 but their health remained perfect. Not the slightest trace of malaria de- 

 veloped in any of them. As above stated, the spot where the house was built 

 was probably the most malarious one in the whole Campagna, and it was situated 

 on the banks of one of the canals, which literally swarmed with Anopheles 

 larvas. The prevalent idea that the night air of the Campagna is in itself so 

 dangerous was included in the experiments and the windows were always left 

 open at night, so that if the marsh air had anything to do with malaria they 

 would have contracted it. 



A check experiment was carried on at the same time. Anopheles mosquitoes, 

 which, under the direction of the Italian doctors Bignami and Bastianelli, 

 had been fed on the blood of a sufferer from malaria in Eome, were sent to 

 London early in July. A son of Sir Patrick Manson offered himself as a subject 

 for experiment and allowed himself to be bitten by the mosquitoes. He had 

 never been in a malarious country since he was a child and was in perfect health, 

 but in due time he was taken with a well-marked malarial attack of the benign 

 tertian type ; microscopical examination showed the presence of the parasites in 

 his blood. Later a second subject, also an Englishman, who had never suffered 

 from malaria, submitted to the experiment, allowing himself to be bitten by 

 infected mosquitoes sent from Eome. He also developed malaria after two 

 weeks and the parasites were demonstrated in his blood. 



Another early experiment on a large scale, to control malaria through pro- 

 tection from mosquitoes, was carried on in 1900 by Fermi and Tonsini on the 

 Island of Asinara. This island is north of Sardinia, and inhabited only by 

 convicts and their guards. After a close study of the malarious localities, and 

 mapping of the mosquito breeding places, measures were taken for (1) de- 



