704 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



malaria rate of between 25.5 per cent and 40.9 per cent. The trnth 

 is probably that at Monlki and Orchomenos all the children are really 

 infected in the autumn. 



With regard to the number of breeding places of Anophelines we 

 found them only in two small pools, one at Moulki and one at Orcho- 

 menos; and the former of these was immediately drained away by 

 Mr. Steele, of the Lake Kopais Company, The season, however, 

 was early, and our search far from exhaustive. Many more pools 

 will, of course, be found ; but, nevertheless, I infer that the amount 

 of breeding surface per square mile of country is extremely small, 

 so that antipropagation measures ought to be correspondingly cheap. 



Such were the results of my own observations ; and I will now give 

 briefly some figures which I obtained for the whole of Greece. 

 Within the last year or two there has been founded at Athens an 

 admirable malaria society for the study of such questions. It is 

 under the patronage of His Majesty the King of Greece, and con- 

 sists of many enthusiastic members. One of these is my friend 

 Doctor Savas, professor of hygiene at the University of Athens 

 and physician to the King of Greece, and the general secretary is 

 my friend Doctor Kardamatis, who gave me so much assistance at 

 Lake Kopais. I can testify to the complete knowledge of the sub- 

 ject possessed by both of these gentlemen. — wdiom I mention more 

 particularly than their colleagues, because I was brought more 

 especially into contact with them — to their zeal in the cause, and to 

 their philosophic grasp of the importance of the malaria question for 

 their country. From them I obtained the following approximate fig- 

 ures for the whole of Greece: 



Population .of Greece 2, 433, 806 



Average annual number of cases of malaria 250, 000 



Average annual number of deaths from malaria 1, 760 



Number of cases of malaria during 1905 960,048 



Number of deaths from malaria during 1905 5,916 



These figures are, I think, as sound as any that can be collected 

 from statistics. Malaria is a very difficult disease to deal with in this 

 way, because it does not consist of a single severe attack demanding 

 immediate medical assistance, but rather of a series of comparatively 

 slight attacks extending over a period of years, and, moreover, occur- 

 ring principally in young children. Many cases do not find their way 

 into the returns at all, while, on the other hand, relapses must be fre- 

 quentl}^ entered as fresh infections. As for the death-rate, compara- 

 tively few cases die simply of malaria, but many are carried off by 

 intercurrent pneumonia or diarrhea, or perish gradually from 

 ana3mia, under which headings the mortality is often recorded. The 

 figures given above, however, agree entirely with my own estimate of 

 the endemic index round Lake Kopais ; and I believe that if similar 



