MALARIA TN GREECE— ROSS. 705 



methods could be used all over Greece — if all the children in the coun- 

 try could be examined — it would be found that an extremely large 

 proportion of them are constantly infected. Last year was a very bad 

 year, wnth a recorded death rate of 2.4 per thousand of the popula- 

 tion. Nor is the malaria of a benign type in Greece. On the contrary, 

 I was informed by all the gentlemen mentioned above, and also by a 

 number of medical men whom I met at Thebes and Livadhia, that 

 pernicious attacks are very common, and that the most serious form, 

 that of blackwater fever, is extremely common. Such facts are re- 

 corded also in the writings of Kardamatis, Savas, and other able 

 Greek observers. The disease is therefore extremely, if not shock- 

 ingly, rife in the country — much more so even than in Italy. Doctor 

 Savas told me that from some statistics which he had studied the 

 number of cases and deaths in Greece are half again as numerous as 

 in Italy for equal numbers of people. All species of the parasites are 

 to be found in Greece. In our own studies the mild tertian parasite 

 occurred most frequently, the so-called malignant species next com- 

 monly, and the quartan least of all — but not rarely. As I have said 

 blackwater fever, the worst form of malaria, has been very common 

 in Greece. Regarding the species of Anophelines, which carry ma- 

 laria in the country, Doctor Savas told me that out of 1,839 of thesh 

 insects 1,778 were found to be Anopheles macuUpennis, 21 to be Ano- 

 pheles hifiircatits, and 20 to be Pyretophorus superpictus^ all well- 

 known agents of the disease. 



Now, what must be the effect of this ubiquitous and everlasting 

 incubus of disease on the people of modern Greece? Remember that 

 the malady is essentially one of infancy among the native population. 

 Infecting the child one or two years after birth, it persecutes him 

 until puberty with a long succession of febrile attacks, accompanied 

 by much splenomegaly and anaemia. Imagine the effect it would pro- 

 duce upon our own children here in Britain. It is true that our chil- 

 dren suffer from many complaints — scarlatina, measles, whooping 

 cough— but these are of brief duration and transient. But now add 

 to these, in imagination, a malady which lasts for years and may 

 sometimes attack every child in a village. \^^iat would be the effect 

 upon our population, especially our rural population — upon their 

 numbers, and upon the health and vigor of the survivors? It must 

 be enormous in Greece. People often seem to think that such a 

 plague strengthens a race by killing off the weaker individuals; but 

 this view rests upon the unproven assumption that it is really the 

 weaker children which can not survive. On the contrary, experience 

 seems to show that it is the stronger blood which suffers most — the 

 fair northern blood which nature attempts constantly to pour into 

 the southern lands. If this be true, the effect of malaria will be 



