522 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



Anti-malarial work in French Africa, as in the British territories, 

 is based on many kinds of policy, but, as mentioned above, con- 

 ditions vary so much from place to place that in the present state 

 of knowledge the problem is best attacked from many aspects. 

 Professor Marchoux, the authority on malaria at the Pasteur 

 Institute in Paris, considers that in most regions the best approach 

 is to cure the sick and improve the standard of living, and con- 

 siderable advances on these lines have been made in recent years. 

 Meanwhile direct attacks against the mosquito vectors have been 

 made in certain areas, mainly through the agency of the Rocke- 

 feller Foundation. 



For the Belgian Congo some information on the incidence of 

 malaria has been collected during the past five years. J. Schwetz, 

 with the collaboration of Baumann, Peel, Droeshaut and Bel- 

 hommet (1933, 1934), has published a long series of papers on 

 the subject and among other authors may be mentioned P. 

 Reyntjens, M. Sambon (193 1-2), and R. van Nitsen (1933). In 

 general it may be said that modern views of malaria control hold 

 that in townships anti-mosquito measures offer the greatest hope 

 of eradicating malaria, and these may also be justified in rural 

 areas where special conditions such as concentrated agricultural 

 development exist. In the greater part of Africa, however, malaria 

 control must be limited for financial reasons to concentration on 

 general methods for raising the standard of living combined with 

 treatment of the sick where necessary, emphasis being laid on the 

 fact that no statistical evidence of value has yet been brought for- 

 ward to justify many of the unsupported statements made as to the 

 important part played by malaria in increasing African morbidity 

 and mortality, especially in childhood. 



BLACKWATER FEVER 



Little is yet known about the cause and cure of blackwater fever, 

 beyond the facts that it is closely associated with malaria, and that 

 where malaria prophylaxis is carefully carried out, blackwater 

 rarely occurs. This disease has been associated mainly with non- 

 native races, but more cases may occur among Africans than are 

 recorded. Many suggestions have been made as to its nature and 

 causes, but few have so far been put to experimental proof. Some 



