102 Kansas Academy of Science. 



offered themselves as martyrs. The humanitarian and unsel- 

 fish devotion of such men as Manson, Samborn, Low and Terzi, 

 in living among the malaria infected swamps of Greece in order 

 to prove the deadly role that the Anopheles play in the misfor- 

 tunes of man, is worthy of all praise. Truly such men should 

 have monuments erected to their memories in order to remind 

 mankind of their sacrifices to the welfare of humanity. 



The mosquito has been a very important factor in the affairs 

 of man. Let us quote from Ronald Ross's paper on "Malaria 

 in Greece."* 



"In prehistoric times Greece was certainly peopled by successive waves 

 of Aryan invaders from the north — probably a fair-haired people — who 

 made it what it became, who conquered Persia and Egypt, and who 

 created the scienc6s, arts and philosophies, which we are only developing 

 further to-day. That race reached the climax of its 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 

 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 kill- 

 ing out the fair-haired descendants of the original settlers, leaving be- 

 hind chieflj'^ the more immunized and darker children of their captives 

 won by the sword from Asia and Africa? Could it (the malaria) not 

 have been introduced into Greece about the time of Hippocrates by the 

 numerous Asiatic and African slaves taken by the conquerors? Suppos- 

 ing, as is probable, that the Anophelines were already present, all that 

 was required to light the conflagration was the entry of the infected per- 

 sons. Once started, the disease would spread by internal intercourse from 

 valley to valley, would smolder here and blaze there, and would, I think, 

 gradually eat out the high strain of the northern blood. 



"I can't imagine Lake Kopais, in its present highly malarious condi- 

 tion, to have been thickly peopled by a vigorous race, nor, on looking at 

 those wonderful figured tombstones at Athens, can I imagine that the 

 health and power people represented upon them could have ever passed 

 through the anemic and splenomegalous (to coin a word) infancy caused 

 by widespread malaria. 



"The whole life of Greece must suffer from the weight which crushes 

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

 country create that fresh tlood v.'hich keeps a nation young?" 



* Macfie, The Romance of Mpdicinc, pp. 160-162. 



