MALARIA IN GREECE." 



By Ronald Ross, F, R. S., C. B., 



Professor of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool. 



[Professor Osier, M. D., F. R. S., in the chair.] 



Professor Osier and Gentlemen, I consider myself extremely fortu- 

 nate in being able to introduce the subject of malaria in Greece to 

 my countrymen, through such a very appropriate avenue as the Ox- 

 ford Medical Society, I was actually considering how the introduc- 

 tion might best be effected when I received the invitation from your 

 secretary to address you to-night. For where could anyone who 

 wishes to discourse of Greece do so much better than in Oxford — 

 herself the daughter of Greece, who has borne through the ages the 

 torch first fired in that divine country? And, since my subject is 

 ^sculapian, what audience could I find fitter than yourselves ? But 

 my luck does not end here ; for in you, Mr. President, I have chanced 

 upon the fittest of all presidents, eminent alike in science and in the 

 humanities, to both of which my theme appeals. Further, when I 

 first opened my beggar's wallet for subscriptions in aid of the cause 

 which I have to advocate to-night, it was yourself who contributed 

 the first dole — a goodly number of solid drachmae, in aid of Greece. 

 The omens are therefore propitious, and if I fail it will be the fault 

 of myself rather than of fortune. 



First let the Muse explain (she is sorry that she can not do it in 

 hexameters) how it came that so humble an advocate as myself was 

 selected for so great a client. Early in the year I was asked by a 

 British company which owns certain large tracts of land in Greece 

 to go there, in order to advise as to the best means of reducing the 

 malaria which for a long time had been persecuting the company's 

 employees. I arrived in Greece toward the end of last May, and 

 there, sure enough, found Andromeda in tears, awaiting the on- 

 slaught of the fell monster which was just then preparing to arise 

 (metaphorically speaking) from his long winter sleep in order to 



'^An address delivered to the Oxford Medical Society on November 29, 1906. 

 Reprinted by permission from tbe Journal of Tropical Medicine, London, Novem- 

 ber 15, 1906. 



^97 



