II 



Malaria and Mosquitoes 



THE principal cause of the present widespread inter- 

 est in the subject of mosquitoes and mosquito- 

 extermination is tlie perfectly satisfactory proof 

 which has been g-aiued during" the past few j'ears that 

 they are responsible for the transmission of the malarial 

 germ from malarial patients to healthy people. The 

 causative micro-organism of malaria was discovered by 

 the French army surgeon, Laveran, in Algeria in 1880. 

 From that time to the present, a small army of workers 

 of several different nations have been working- upon the 

 life history of the malarial parasites, not only of human 

 beings but of birds, and our present knowledge is quite 

 complete. The idea that mosquitoes might possibly 

 s]>read malaria had been suggested a number of times. 

 The most forcible argument, however, was presented by 

 Dr. A. F. A. King at Washington, Avith whom the idea was 

 entirely original, in a pajx'r read before tlie Philosophical 

 Society in 1882. The actiial demonstration, however, was 

 not broug"ht about \\\\i\\ much later, and in this actual 

 demonstration workers of several nations had a share. 

 The researches of MacCallum, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, while investigating the malarial disease of the com- 



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