MALARIA IN GEEECE EOSS. 703 



the two springs of Lethe and Mnemosyne — Forgetfulness and Mem- 

 ory — now flow out of the rock. Notwithstanding the height of the 

 situation and the absence of any apparent marshes close at hand, we 

 found enlargement of spleen in 16 out of 100 school children here. 

 The infection is probably obtained in lower areas outside the town ; 

 but we had no time to make any search for the Anophelines. We 

 spent some hours also at Thebes itself. This famous place, w^hich 

 used to contain 40,000 inhabitants, now contains only 4,780. Situated 

 on a rocky eminence in the midst of a large plain, the historic Kad- 

 meia, it is considered to be fairly healthy, and indeed we found en- 

 largement of the spleen in only one child out of 50 examined, and 

 failed in obtaining any larva? of Anophelines in several small pools 

 round the base of the renowned citadel. Such researches carried out 

 on the spot where lived Pindar and Epaminondas, where Theban, 

 Athenian, and Spartan had frequently mingled in battle, and where 

 angry Alexander wreaked his vengeance, were " of the age." I am 

 not certain whether the little wriggler of the puddles had not been a 

 w^orse enemy to Thebes than was the great conqueror. One remains; 

 the other has passed away for ages. If Diogenes had possessed our 

 j)resent knowledge, he might have made a still more caustic reply to 

 his powerful visitor. 



Thus, altogether, out of 292 unselected children examined by us in 

 five different places, we found unmistakable evidence of malaria in 

 97, or one-third. In addition to the children, we examined 18 adults 

 at Moulki. As is now^ well known, the adult natives of a malarious 

 locality become comparatively immune, their spleens returning to the 

 normal size, and the parasites becoming extremely scarce in their 

 blood. Nevertheless, we found signs of malaria in 4 of these adults, 

 but, of course, such figures are not useful for estimating the endemic 

 index. Including all, we found certain evidence of malaria in 120 

 out of 367 persons, or 32 per cent. The figures for the children, how- 

 ever, give a reliable and high malaria rate, especially when it is 

 remembered that they were collected at the beginning of the summer, 

 before the annual malaria season had commenced. Later in the year 

 the endemic index would certainly have been still higher. If, more- 

 over, we had examined the blood of the 200 children dealt with at 

 Orchomenos, Livadhia, and Thebes, we should certainly have been 

 able to add many other cases of infection to our list; while lastly we 

 should remember that in all cases of malaria the parasites frequently 

 become temporarily too few for detection by the microscope. Our 

 total estimate of 33.2 per cent infected children must therefore be 

 much below the maximum ratio, and may be looked upon as a mini- 

 mum ratio. The statistical corrections by Poisson's formula works 

 out at 7.7 per cent, so that we have finally for the five localities, 

 Moulki, Mazi, Orchomenos, Livadhia, and Thebes, a minimum child- 



