CLAIMS FOR OLD WORLD ORIGIN 297 



less and nomadic character of the Indian long before it could have acquired any- 

 considerable increment or dimensions. They are not properly sociable in their 

 dwelling places : if among them the social spirit exists it merely shows itself 

 at the time of feasts, of warlike enterprises or of great migrations, etc. During 

 transitory and passing occasions there are indeed agglomerations of people, but 

 inchoate, ready to break up, and their camps can not even be called temporary. 

 The occasion over, the multitude dissolves itself as by enchantment or before 

 the breath of the wind. Now such conditions are not to the taste of Stegomyia 

 fasciata. 



" On the other hand, what do we find in Africa? One of the most striking 

 ethnological characteristics of the black people is precisely the social spirit 

 strongly developed. In the stories of all travelers we find at every moment ex- 

 pressions of surprise and admiration as to the grouping of houses, attaining 

 numerical dimensions so great as to prevent a rapid census. In that country 

 there are frequently found centers of ten, fifteen or twenty thousand inhabi- 

 tants, and yet these are barely called villages ; in Africa the idea of a city is only 

 given consideration with such centers as possess a multiple of the above figures. 

 Here we have the condition of affairs that admirably meets that which stego- 

 myia wants and demands. It is the very best condition for its life requirements : 

 a hot and humid climate and very large groups of human beings. 



" All I wish to set down in brief words is that a careful comparison of the 

 ethnological situation there and here — and this certainly constitutes a factor 

 of the utmost importance in the matter — at once demonstrates the indubitable 

 advantage on the side of the African origin of Stegomyia fasciata. 



" Another series of considerations which in the highest degree tend to upset 

 the theory, so weak in its basis, of the American origin of Stegomyia fasciata, 

 are opened up as soon as we weigh the results obtained by a critical examination 

 of the partnership, Stegomyia fasciata — Culex fatigans. In a previous essay I 

 frequently and persistently pointed out that these two mosquitoes are inseparable 

 companions all over the world, and I demonstrated that, one a diurnal and the 

 other a nocturnal mosquito, they together formed a partnership admirably or- 

 ganized to take in daily cyclic rotation tribute from man in the tropical zone. 



" Now it is worth while noting that the type specimen, the original which 

 served for the first description of Culex fatigans by Wiedemann in 1828, came 

 from the oriental Indies. This circumstance, if indeed by itself alone it does not 

 amount to proof, is nevertheless of no small symptomatic importance. 



" I ask this : Does this ominous partnership of Stegomyia fasciata and Culex 

 fatigans date from yesterday ? Is it perhaps an accidental result in the tropical 

 part of the New World ? I believe that it is of a date much further back, and 

 that we must find the locality where the pact was celebrated in some part of the 

 Old World, and that it was not accidental but the natural consequence of an 

 almost identity of common interests. 



" I believe that there are good arguments indicating an Ethiopic-Indian 

 nativity of this alliance, and the more I examine it the more it seems desirable 

 to me that there should be a conscientious and critical investigation undertaken 

 into the question of an eventual parallelism between the distribution and dis- 

 persion in ancient and modern times, of the black human race on the one hand, 

 and of the two mosquito partners in their damnable offensive alliance on the 

 other hand. 



" It is indispensable not to lose sight of the fact that he would be ill-advised 

 who would permit himself to be impressed and influenced one-sidedly and par- 

 tially by the aspect which things present today in this field. Do you wish an 

 example ? It is not necessary to go far to find a most drastic one. Brazil today 

 is the greatest producer of coffee and undoubtedly is the country where the 



