1908] 



0)1 the Extinction of Malta Fever, 



17 



Social Position. — Another curious fact in regard to this disease is, 

 that the better the social position of a person the more risk is there 

 of catching this fever. Officers and their wives and children, living 

 in large, airy and clean houses, suffer more frequently than the men in 

 their more crowded barrack-rooms. In fact the chance of a naval 

 or military officer taking this fever was more than three times as great 

 as in the case of the men. 



This is shown on this diagram!(Fig. 2). 



MALTA r£V£R fNTHc CARRfSON 

 RAT/O per /OOO. 

 1897 TO 1905 



Fig. 2. — Incidence in Officers, Men and Women, 

 FOR 1887-1905. 



Distribution of Malta Fever among the Civil Population. — Another 

 important fact is the distribution of Malta fever among the civil popu- 

 lation. Until recently it was supposed by many of us that it was 

 restricted to the inhabitants of the cities surrounding the Grand Har- 

 bour. This was in the days when the theory was held that the poison 

 which causes this fever was found in the air. As the Grand Harbour 

 at that time was in a very dirty condition, the drainage of Yaletta and 

 the three cities falling into it, there was some excuse for this belief. 



Malta fever is now known to occur in every part of Malta, and. in 

 fact, the general distribution of this disease is very striking. It is 

 not the cities round the harbours which are struck most heavily, some 

 of the inland towns and villages showing a much higher fever-rate. 



This is illustrated by the following diagram (Fig. 3). 

 Vol. XIX. (No, 102) 



