MALARIA AND ITS TRANSMISSION 



Historical. — - Though there is even at this late date 

 much popular and even some professional (medical) 

 aversion and faithlessness in the so-called "mosquito- 

 malaria theory," notwithstanding the great mass of 

 evidence in its favor, it is shown by such writers as 

 Nuttall (1899) that this theory has existed for many 

 years among the Italian and Tyrolese peasants and the 

 natives of German East Africa, and in the United 

 States as early as the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. The same writer states, viz.: "It is curious to 

 look over the more recent literature on the subject to 

 see how writers have rediscovered the mosquito-malaria 

 theory. In France the theory is ascribed to Laveran, 

 in Germany to Koch and Pfeiffer, in England to Man- 

 son, whilst in Italy the names of Bignami, Mendini, 

 and, lastly, Grassi are identified with it. By far the 

 most masterly exposition of the theory was written 

 by King (an American, in 1883). 1 It is first mentioned 

 by Laveran in 1891, by Manson in 1894, whilst Pfeiffer 

 makes the first published statement of Koch's views 

 in 1892. As far as I can gather, Bignami and Mendini 

 refer to it in 1896 and Grassi in 1898." 



The credit for the discovery of the causative organism 



1 Author's words in parenthesis. 

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