MOSQUTTOES AND MALARIA. 15 



screening the huts of the peasants on the Roman Campagna and by 

 furnishing field laborers with veils and gloves when exposed to the 

 night air, it is possible even in that famous hotbed of malaria to 

 conduct farming operations with a minimum of trouble from the 

 disease. Moreover, Koch and his assistants in German East Africa 

 have shown that it is possible, by stamping out the disease among 

 human beings by the free use of medicine, that a point can be gained 

 where there is small opportimity for the malarial mosquitoes to become 

 infected. Moreover, the work of the parties sent out by the Liverpool 

 School of Tropical Medicine and other English organizations to the 

 west coast of Africa has shown that by the treatment of malarial- 

 mosquito breeding pools the pernicious coast fever may be greatly 

 reduced. Again, the work of Englishmen in the Federated Malay 

 States has shown that large areas may be practically freed from 

 malaria. The most thorough and the most satisfactory of all meas- 

 ures consists in abolishing the breeding places of the "malarial mos- 

 quitoes. In regions like the Delta of the Mississippi this involves 

 extensive and systematic drainage, but in very many localities where 

 the breeding places of the Anopheles mosquitoes can be easily eradi- 

 cated, where they are readily located and are so circumscribed as to 

 admit of easy treatment, it is possible to rid the section of malaria 

 at a comparatively slight expense. 



With a general popular appreciation of the industrial losses caused 

 primarily by the malarial mosquito and secondarily bj^ the forms 

 which do not carry malaria, as indicated in the opening paragraphs, 

 it is inconceivable that the comparatively inexpensive measures neces- 

 sary should not be undertaken by the General Government, by the 

 State governments, and by the boards of health of communities, just 

 as it is inconceivable that the individual should suffer from malaria 

 and from the attacks of other mosquitoes when he has individual 

 preventives and remedies at hand. Large-scale drainage measures 

 by the General Government involving large sections of valuable terri- 

 tory^ have been planned and are practically under way; certain States, 

 notably New Jersey and New York, are beginning to work ; communi- 

 ties all over the country through boards of health are also beginning 

 to take notice, while popular education regarding the danger from 

 mosquitoes and in regard to remedial measures is rapidly spreading. 

 But all of this interest should be intensified, and the importance of 

 the work should be displayed in the most emphatic manner, and relief 

 from malaria and other mosquito conditions should be brought about 

 as speedily as possible. 



A few excellent examples of antimalarial work may be instanced: 

 The latest reports on the measures taken to abolish malaria from 

 Klang and Port Swettenham in Selangor, Federated Malay States, 

 indicate the most admirable results. These measures were under- 



