MALAEIA IN GREECE 327 



it is the stronger blood which suffers most — the fair, northern blood which nature 

 attempts constantly to pour into the southern lands. If this be true, the effect 

 of malaria will be constantly to resist the invigorating influx which nature has 

 provided : and there are many facts in the history of India, Italy, and Africa, 

 <vhich could be brought forward in support of this hypothesis. 



" ' We now come face to face with that profoundly interesting subject, the 

 political, economical, and historical significance of this great disease. We know 

 that malaria must have existed in Greece ever since the time of Hippocrates, 

 about 400 B. C. What effect has it had on the life of the country? In pre- 

 historic times Greece was certainly peopled by successive waves of Aryan in- 

 vaders from the north — probably a fair-haired people — who made it what it 

 became, who conquered Persia and Egypt, and who created the sciences, arts, and 

 philosophies which we are only developing further to-day. That race reached 

 its climax of development at the time of Pericles. Those great and beautiful 

 valleys were thickly peopled by a civilization which in some ways has not been 

 excelled. Everywhere there were cities, temples, oracles, arts, philosophies, and 

 a population vigorous and well trained in arms. Lake Kopais, now almost 

 deserted, was surrounded by towns whose massive works remain to this day. 

 Suddenly, however, a blight fell over all. Was it due to internecine conflict or 

 to foreign conquest? Scarcely; for history shows that war burns and ravages, 

 but does not annihilate. Thebes was thrice destroyed, but thrice rebuilt. Or 

 was it due to some cause, entering furtively and gradually sapping away the 

 energies of the race by attacking the rural population, by slaying the new- 

 born infant, by seizing the rising generation, and especially by killing out the 

 fair-haired descendant of the original settlers, leaving behind chiefly the more 

 immunised and darker children of their captives, won by the sword from Asia 

 and Africa? . . . 



" ' I can not imagine Lake Kopais, in its present highly malarious condition, 

 to have been thickly peopled by a vigorous race ; nor, on looking at these wonder- 

 ful figured tombstones at Athens, can I imagine that the healthy and powerful 

 people represented upon them could have ever passed through the anfemic and 

 splenomegalous infancy (to coin a word) caused by widespread malaria. Well, 

 I venture only to suggest the hypothesis, and must leave it to scholars for con- 

 firmation or rejection. Of one thing I am confident, that causes such as malaria, 

 dysentery, and intestinal entoza must have modified history to a much greater 

 extent than we conceive. Our historians and economists do not seem even to 

 have considered the matter. It is true that they speak of epidemic diseases, but 

 the endemic diseases are really those of the greatest importance. . . . 



" ' The whole life of Greece must suffer from this weight, which crushes its 

 rural energies. Where the children suffer so much, how can the country create 

 that fresh blood which keeps a nation young ? But for a hamlet here and there, 

 those famous valleys are deserted. I saw from a spur of Helikon the sun setting 

 upon Parnassus, Apollo sinking, as he Avas wont to do, towards his own fane at 

 Delphi, and pouring a flood of light over the great Kopaik Plain. But it seemed 

 that he was the only inhabitant of it. There was nothing there. ' Who,' said a 

 rich Greek to me, ' would think of going to live in such a place as that ? ' I doubt 

 much whether it is the Turk who has done all this. I think it is very largely the 

 malaria. 



" In considering carefully this suggestive argument of Major Eoss does it not 

 appear to indicate the tremendous influence that the prevalence of endemic 

 disease must exert upon the progress of modern nations, and does it not bring 

 the thought that those nations that are most advanced in sanitary science and 

 preventive medicine will, other things being equal, assume the lead in the 

 world's work? Who can estimate the influence of the sanitary laws of the 



