56 MOSQUITOES 



of the experiment. The jieoph' in tlu^ suriouiuling- coun- 

 try generally became feverisli and ill, 'which meant simply 

 that they were all full of malaria, and the chillin."- caused 

 by the rain broug-ht about an exi)losion of the fever. The 

 experimenters, however, went out into the rain and j^i-ot 

 soaked to the skin, but their health remained perfect. 

 Not the sli<ilitost trace of malaria developed in either of 

 them ; as above stated, the spot where the house was built 

 was probably tlu^ most malarious one in the whole Cam- 

 pa<;-na, and it was situated on the banks of one of the 

 canals, which was literall}' swarming- with Anopheles 

 larviTp. The prevalent idea that the night air of the Cam- 

 pagna is in itself so dangerous was included in the ex- 

 periments and the windows were always left open at 

 niglit, so that if the marsh air had anything to do with 

 malaria they Avould have contracted it. 



A check experiment was carried on at the same time. 

 Anopheles mos({uitoes which had been fed on the blood 

 of a sufferer from malaria in Kome, under the direction 

 of the Italian authority Bastianelli, were sent to London 

 early in July. A son of Dr. Patrick Manson, the famous 

 investigator who first proved the transfer of tilaria hy 

 mos(piitoes, offered himself as a subject for experiment, 

 and allowed himst^lf to bt^ bitten by the mosquitoes. He 

 had nev(a* been in a malarious country since he was a 

 cliild, l»ut in due time was taken with a wcll-niarkcd ma- 

 larial infection of the double tertian tyi)e, and micro- 

 scopical examination showed the presence of numerous 

 parasites in his l)lood. 



No more perfectly pr;icli(';il demonstration is jirobably 



