438 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



have not been four deaths from disease to one from bullets. In the Spanish- 

 American War there were fourteen deaths from disease to one from battle. 

 Japan in her war with China, in 1894, lost three from disease to one from 

 bullets; but from February, 1904, to May, 1905, in her war with Kussia four 

 were lost in battle to one only from disease, the exact figures being 52,946 lost 

 in battle and 11,993 lost from disease, and the significant fact must be added 

 that of the total sick only 3.51 per cent were sick with infectious diseases. There 

 were only 1257 cases of malaria in the whole army, six hundred thousand strong, 

 in the eighteen months duration of the war, whereas in 1894, in the war with 

 China, there had been 41,734 cases of malaria. 



" At the outset of the campaign the purifying of cities occupied was begun and 

 attention was paid to mosquito breeding- places. One of the orders issued was 

 that the waste water of the barracks should be connected with the town gutters. 

 Incidentally it may be noted that all articles sold publicly were required to be 

 covered to protect them from flies. In the book of health instructions issued to 

 soldiers occurred the paragraph, ' Malaria is spread by mosquitoes ; therefore 

 protect yourself from them as much as possible.' The soldiers had their camp 

 kettles with them, they were furnished with water boilers, and all water had to 

 be boiled before being drunk. They were furnished with mosquito bars, and 

 every man was enveloped in a bar during the mosquito season. 



" The occurrence of 1257 cases of malaria in an army six hundred thousand 

 strong must be contrasted with a telegram sent from General Shaffer at Santi- 

 ago on August 8th during the Spanish-American War, which read ' At least 

 seventy-five per cent of the command has been down with malarial fever from 

 which they recover very slowly. . . .' " 



It should be noted that Major Seaman was disappointed not to find mosquito 

 nettings in the main hospital in Tokio and that he states that this hoepital was 

 inferior in this and certain other respects to the second and third reserve hos- 

 pitals in Manila. He states that at some of the hospitals netting was added as 

 the mosquito season approached, but it is only fair to infer that at this main hos- 

 pital the Japanese surgeons knew what they were about and were certain that 

 the absence of the mosquito bars involved no danger to the patients. 



WORK IN ALGERIA. 

 In 1902 an anti-malarial campaign was begun in Algeria, under the auspices 

 and at the expense of the Pasteur Institute of Paris. The work was begun in 

 a small way, and the service was afterwards extended and supported by the 

 Algerian government, and it is still being carried on. Drs, Edmond and Etienne 

 Sergent were assigned to the work, and in 1903 published an account of the early 

 demonstrations. The investigators propounded to themselves the following ques- 

 tion : Is it possible, under the conditions existing in Algeria, to defend a group 

 of Europeans from malaria? They decided to use no prophylactic measures 

 whatever except the destruction of Anopheles. The management of the East 

 Algerian Eailroad placed at their disposal one of the stations of that line. 

 This station, which was called Alma, was a hot-bed of malaria. Nine agents 



