608 Major Ronald Ross [May 7, 



gards Italy and Germany ; and the creation of the Schools of Tropical 

 Medicine in Liverpool and London in 1899 did mnch to popularise 

 the recent discoveries. At my inaugural lecture the same year at the 

 former institution, I described my proposals for the prevention of 

 malaria by mosquito-reduction ; and a few months later, accompanied 

 by Dr. H. E. Annett and Mr. E. E. Austen, I left England for 

 Sierra Leone in order to perfect the details. 



Sierra Leone is a small British colony long notorious for its ex- 

 treme unheal thiness. We determined rapidly the malaria-bearing 

 species of Anophelines there, and their breeding places and habits ; 

 and drew up a series of proposals for their reduction. These have 

 since become the basis of similar work elsewhere ; but simple as they 

 were, we could not get the local authorities to understand them or 

 act upon them. Two years later, I again twice visited the Colony, 

 and, assisted by Dr. Logan Taylor and a sum of money presented to 

 me for the purpose by a private gentleman, attempted to give an 

 object-lesson on the subject. Though the result was successful at 

 the time, we again failed in inducing the authorities to take up the 

 work properly ; and I can obtain no adequate information as to what 

 has been done there during the last seven years, and may perhaps be 

 excused for not wishing to inquire. 



In the meantime the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and 

 the Royal Society had sent a series of expeditions to West Africa, 

 which did much good work there. As a consequence. Sir William 

 MacGregor, Governor of Lagos, and one of the most enlightened of 

 British administrators, took up the task in that colony with great in- 

 telligence and energy, but unfortunately was shortly forced to leave 

 by ill- health — a serious blow to anti-malarial work throughout the 

 world. From that time, though much appears to have been done by 

 energetic individuals in West Africa, and though, to judge from 

 popular statements, public health has been decidedly improved there, 

 yet the official reports and returns are too inadequate to enable us to 

 form any reliable opinion of the results. The recent statements of 

 Professor Simpson on the subject are not encouraging, and to my 

 mind, judging from many facts known to me, the sanitary adminis- 

 tration of the West African colonies has been generally wantiug in 

 leadership and organisation, and the campaign against malaria has 

 been constantly thwarted by administrative indifference and profes- 

 sional jealousy. 



Turning elsewhere, I must now mention with great pleasure the 

 early and successful campaign of Koch at Stephensort, in New Guinea. 

 The method of Koch does not depend on mosquito reduction, but on 

 the detection and treatment of cases of malaria by quinine, until they 

 cease to spread the disease among their healthy neighbours. It is 

 allied to the similar method used in other diseases ; has been success- 

 fully followed in the German colonies and in Italy ; and will always 

 be a valuable weapon in the antimalarial armoury. The great work 



