492 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Grassi in Rome, he handed me printed documents which he said 

 conclusively ptoved that Ross deserves credit only as the discoverer 

 of the vectors of sparrow malaria. 



Celli, during the latter part of his life, was fully absorbed in the 

 malaria fight. He was a man of charming personality and of much 

 influence. He was largely responsible for the formation of the anti- 

 malaria association (La Societa per gli Studii della Malaria) and the 

 publications issued under its auspices,^ and was instrumental in raising 

 a large sum of money, to which the King himself contributed largely 

 from his -private funds, for large-scale work on the Campagna. These 

 facts were recognized, not only by the scientific men of Italy, but 

 were apparently perfectly well known to the peasants on the 

 Campagna. 



I visited the Campagna in the summer of 1902, and saw the 

 distressing conditions that existed there before the elaborate " boni- 

 fication " (as Celli called it) began. Eight years later T visited the 

 region again, this time in Celli's company. The change that had 

 occurred was mai-velous. At the first visit the population was scanty ; 

 the men and women were most of them obviously chronically malari- 

 ous ; their com]>lcxions were yellow and their eyes were dull ; the half- 

 clad children were sluggish, many of them with greatly enlarged spleen 

 which produced the appearance known to physicians as " rat-belly " ; 

 the agriculture was primitive, and the whole land looked impoverished 

 and half deserted. 



On the second visit the contrast was marvelous. The populatif^n 

 had increased very greatly ; the men were vigorous ; the women had 

 rosy cheeks ; the children were as active and as healthy as the children 

 of the mountainous regions of Lombardy ; capital had evidently gone 

 into the region ; great barns and factories Avcre being erected ; the 

 land was covered with crops, principally lucerne at that time (my visit 

 was in May, and they were already cutting their third crop). Perhaps 

 what pleased me most was to see the respect and the genuine love that 

 the peasants showed Celli. It was a Sunday, and most of them had 

 just returned from church. The children gathered around Celli in 

 numbers, and he told them stories that evidently were of great interest 

 to them. 



This extraordinary result had been brought about, first, by the 

 screening of all habitations on the Campagna, and second, by the 

 virtual quininization of the whole population, on the theory that if the 



' I contriI)utcd two papers to the AUi of this Society at Celli's request (see 

 Vols. II and 12). 



