SOME FACTS ABOUT MALARIA. 
INTRODUCTION. 
It is a noticeable fact that in most parts of the world where anti- 
mosquito measures have been undertaken on a large scale the work 
has been done with the direct end of doing away with mosquito-borne 
diseases. In the United States, however, such antimosquito work as 
has been undertaken has almost invariably been done with the direct 
incentive of simply ridding communities or localities from a great 
nuisance. Almost the only exception has been the work done on 
Staten Island by Dr. Doty, the health officer of New York. 
There are, however, many localities in the United States where 
malaria is prevalent, and some in which the existence of the disease 
in an aggravated form is a serious barrier to agricultural or indus- 
trial development. It has been shown, for example, that, agricul- 
turally speaking, the lands of the Delta region of Mississippi and 
adjoining States are the richest in the whole world, with the possible 
exception of the delta of the Nile, and yet, on account of the extraor- 
dinary prevalence of malaria in this region, it is sparsely settled 
and land prices are low. The advance of the cotton-boll weevil 
into this section has had its customary effect of driving a consid- 
erable proportion of the negro labor into other regions not yet 
invaded, and unless the country is to become impoverished it will be 
necessary to import white labor. Negroes are more or less resistant 
to malaria, but this will not be true of the white labor coming into 
this region, which will undoubtedly become rapidly infected with 
the disease. 
Malaria is not a difficult disease to fight. This has been shown in 
many parts of the world—in Italy, in Cuba, in Panama, in West 
Africa, in India, in Egypt, and elsewhere. People, generally, should 
know the exact truth about the disease and what is to be done. 
The efforts of individuals, after they have acquired the proper know]- 
edge, wiil have an effect upon the malaria rate, while with a general 
knowledge of these facts community work must come sooner or later. 
In the pages which follow, the statements regarding the disease 
itself are partly drawn, with the permission of the American pub- 
lishers, from an admirable summary prepared by Dr. Ronald Ross,t 
1 See Ronald Ross, The Prevention of Malaria. London and New York. 
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